


A Home Among The Gumtrees

by LauramourFromOz



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (sort of), ANZACs Make Everything Better, Advent Calendar, Advent Calendar 2015, Australian Hogwarts, Bunny Bashing, Climate Appropriate Quiddich Uniforms, Eagle Post, Eagles and Dogs and Horses (Oh My!), F/F, F/M, Great Australian Passtimes, Hogwarts Castle Misses The Point Entirely, M/M, Neville Deserves A Knighthood, Not Epilogue Compliant, Or Possibly A Sainthood, Post-War, Practical School Uniforms, Rogue Sorting Hat, Ron Nearly Shots himself, We're Rather Good That Way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-04 07:18:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 45,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5325383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauramourFromOz/pseuds/LauramourFromOz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hogwarts has a branch on each continent, including the wide brown land they call Australia but theirs is very different indeed. Their newest professors, Head of Defence Against the Dark Arts Harry Potter and Head of Potions Draco Malfoy are about to learn a thing or two about the way a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry ought to be run making them feel that their school had missed the point entirely.</p><p>Dedicated to the wonderful Hilda the first of so many to inspire my love for the written word but never saw this one finished.</p><p>And to the wonderful Olivia who read this one first.</p><p>Check out my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LaurAmourFromOz</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Unexpected Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my 2015 attempt at an Advent Calendar. My little Christmas gift to you all. This is already mostly done, just needs proofing, so with some luck I’ll actually post a chapter a day until Christmas. It is actually my first attempt at a NaNoWriMo from back in 2013.

Contrary to popular belief the magical world is not confined to Europe and the United Kingdom. As such there are educational institutions much like Hogwarts Castle across the globe. One such institution is Hogwarts Station, located somewhere in the west of Victoria. The station has always had a somewhat different approach. The magical community of Australia in 1789, when the school was founded, consisted of seventy adults and six children. The colony at the time consisted of one thousand and thirty, only two hundred and seventy seven of whom were free. These seventy six people were determined to be different to their British counterparts. They had a vision, to leave behind their petty blood feuds. They were going to build a community, one that was resilient, one that would help each other out, one that looked beyond blood, beyond appearance, beyond house. They looked instead at the heart and soul of a person. Hogwarts Station had been born of this shared vision, not as a school but a community where the wizarding settlers lived and collectively thrived. It was here that The ANZAC spirit was born and continues to this day.

Two new teachers started at the station just over a year after what had become known as ‘The Battle of Hogwarts’. The first was the head of potions, for which he had always had an aptitude, a veteran of the Second Wizarding War. Draco Malfoy. He liked it here, wide open spaces, fresh air, nobody judging him for the things his father had done. He was just Mr Malfoy, Potions Master. He could build a name for himself as what he had always been at heart, even if the rest of him had gotten a little lost along the way. A good man.

The new Head of Defence against the Dark Arts was also a veteran of the aforementioned war. Harry Potter. Tired of all the attention he had been getting after the war, had jumped at the post, hoping the distance would mean he got less attention. Besides, he had always wanted to see Australia.

They were both surprised when, upon their arrival, they were introduced. They both made a spur of the moment decision.

Draco approached his once time nemesis and classmate. ‘Shall we try this again? The name’s Draco, Draco Malfoy.

Harry smiled and took the cool soft hand offered to him. The tips of his fingers as well as part of his palm were calloused from grinding potions ingredients with a mortar and pestle. ’Sure. Harry, Harry Potter. Friends?’

Draco smiled back, a smile that held no malice, no smugness. It was an honest, warm smile. It struck Harry that he had never seen this from the other man in their almost decade long acquaintance. He somehow doubted that many others had either.

‘Friends. So, what brings you here?’ Harry asked out of what he was mildly surprised to find was genuine curiosity. He shouldered his bag and took one end of Draco’s surprisingly heavy old school trunk.

‘I never get any peace. Everywhere I go people recognise me. I’m hailed a hero. I mean, it was annoying in school when I had just survived,’ He adjusted his grip on the trunk slightly, ‘I actually took a life, I killed a man. Someone’s son, maybe someone’s father. I just want to forget it but nobody in Wizarding Britain will let me. So I came here.’

‘He killed hundreds, thousands of people Harry. Including your parents might I add.’

‘That’s exactly it, where does it end. We were the good guys. I just keep thinking I should have found another way to end it. How about you, what brings you here?’

‘Same thing really. The fact that I was under a very real threat of death doesn’t seem to matter. He was living in my house, with my mother, and I still defected doesn’t seem to matter. So, I came here hoping for some peace. Look, can we just pretend that everything, the war, fighting between us, can we just pretend that never happened?’

‘No arguments here. So, what are you teaching, potions?’

‘Yea, got my mastery end of last year under a Scottish fellow. How about you, defence?’

‘Yea. Apparently I had an aptitude in school.’

Draco had to chuckle at this. ‘Yea, I think you did. Last I heard you were an Auror anyway.’

‘Until about three months ago I was. Not my Idea.’


	2. The Beginning

After two days setting up their classrooms and getting to know the other staff it was the first of March. Harry Draco and the two other new teachers were told to experience one of several trains. It was not as luxurious at their school train, it had no compartments, and the seats were wooden benches, though they were surprisingly comfy. Unlike their school, some students arrived independently. The pets that were allowed were Dogs, Eagles, and Horses, most of the students had all three. The back two carriages were used as Horse floats, the next two were for luggage, then six passenger cars, a Dining Car and another six passenger cars. The Train left from the station at eleven o’clock. A majority of the students had been picked up by either aeroplane or side along apparition and were put up in Melbourne or any of the other departure points overnight as some of them would have had to travel for up to several days. They were shocked to find out that almost as soon as the train had left the station the Students on the train started a sing along. The first song was sung in parts, in their carriage at least. The first part was sung by a fourth year, she was solid, and not overly tall with brown hair and glasses.

 

_Out on the board the old shearer stands,_

_Grasping his shears with his long bony Hands,_

_Fixed is his gaze on a bare-bellied ‘Joe’,_

_Glory if he gets her, won't he make the ringer go._

 

For the next part, which was obviously the chorus, the whole carriage joined in, a sixth year casting a karaoke charm, obviously almost exclusively for the benefit of Harry and Draco.

 

_Click go the shears boys, click, click, click,_

_Wide is his blow and his hands move quick,_

_The ringer looks around and he's beaten by a blow_

_And he curses the old snagger with a blue-bellied_

_‘Joe’._

 

The song continued for another seven verses and eight choruses, by the end Harry and Draco had joined in with the relatively simple tune. They were a few bars into Waltzing Matilda when word that they were coming to a town was sent down the train. They stopped singing and began to chat amongst themselves. A thickset sixth year named Jayne McLoney who was an inch or so taller than Harry with dark brown hair and glasses approached them.

‘Hi, Jayne McLoney.’

‘Harry Potter.’

‘Draco Malfoy.’

‘I'm gunna' go ahead and assume you're new teachers.’ they nodded in agreement. ‘What are you teaching?’

‘Defence Against The Dark Arts.’

‘Potions.’

‘Where 'bouts you from?’

‘Wiltshire.’

‘Surrey.’ at her perplexed look, ‘They’re both outside London.

‘So, you would have been to the genuine article then?’

‘What Hogwarts? It's not all it's cracked up to be, I mean, it was great, we had two top notch Quidditch teams and it was great fun. Every single year there seemed to be an imminent threat that I had to deal with.’

‘And then there were the blood feuds.’

‘And the house rivalries they were so bitter. I had to fight a Dragon when I was Fourteen, and mermaids and what for? Entertainment.

‘Don't forget the Troll.’

‘How did you know about the troll?’

‘Everyone knows about the Troll.’

‘Fair enough. And a Troll, when I was eleven, that yea there was also a three headed dog, and a teacher who was trying to kill me. The next year It was a basilisk that Voldemort had set on the school and a house elf who was trying to save my life but who nearly killed me several times, oh, and a giant spider. I got a bit of a break third year. When I was fifteen it was almost the entire Ministry of Magic, also Death Eaters and Voldemort, when I was sixteen, it was more of the same, then came the Hurcruxes and then the Headmaster got thrown off the Astronomy tower and the war started. I didn't even go back for my Seventh Year, I was too busy hunting Hurcruxes. Then there was Voldemort himself. Trust me, this place is safer.’

‘You really did all that. No wonder you were always in the hospital wing.’

It was at this point that Harry realised that the entire carriage was listening intently to his rant. Thankfully, they passed through the town at that point and they started singing from more or less the exact point they had stopped. Draco turned to him.

‘Did you really do all that?’

‘That's the short version, I'll tell you the long version one day if you like, it’s quite interesting I'm considering writing a book actually.’

‘I'd like that.’

Jayne looked at her pocket watch, and seeing that it was twenty minutes until they were to arrive, spoke up at the end of Bound for Botany Bay.

‘Aright guys, uniforms, we're nearly there.’

They had yet to see the uniforms and were surprised to see that it consisted of Jeans, boots an optional t-shirt with their house or the school crest and a Dinner Jacket in House Colours (the first years were given theirs after they were sorted) There were patches on the jackets identifying extra-curricular activities. Jayne’s cobalt blue jacket was adorned with patches for archery, pistol shooting, rifle shooting, show choir, drama club, fiction writers club, Sci-Fi fan club and the book club. On each of their lapels there was a patch identifying their hometown. Directly under Jayne’s was a snitch adorned with a black 'C' indicating her place as Captain and Seeker of the Ravenclaw Quiddich team. Epaulettes on their shoulders indicated what year they were in. The Jackets were only compulsory on special occasions, beginning of term dinners, end of term dinners, school photos Awards ceremonies, Christmas and Easter as well as the fortnightly formal dinners. The rest of the time they were permitted to hang in the cupboards.

 

Jayne was standing next to them as the other students quickly changed behind a series of screens.

‘So, you’re a Seeker?’

‘Yea, do you play?’

‘I was a seeker too, we both were actually.’

‘What are the teams like here?’

‘Fairly even. Ravenclaw and Huffelpuff are the closest match in the school but for the last four seasons or so everyone has been beaten by everyone else at least once.’

‘An even spread is always good. We had all the worst players in Huffelpuff, Their chasers were quite good, so their games were quite high scoring, but the school only really had two good seekers. Ravenclaw had a good keeper and fair chasers but their seeker was rubbish. Slytherin had a team that was mostly aggression and not much by way of tactics but they had an exceptional seeker so it worked out alright, we were all tactics and a fantastic seeker.’

‘Since when is fantastic better than exceptional?’

‘It's not, I was mostly lucky, I swallowed the thing twice.’

The train had now come to a halt at a station and there was a rush of students collecting their belongings. A short while later the people with horses were in the saddle, dog next to them and Eagle flying overhead, headed to the station down the road, waiting for the few who didn't was a bus. The luggage was loaded underneath and into the trays of a couple of old utes and they set off along the dirt road.

                                                                                   

The sun was setting, casting a pink and orange glow over the station as they arrived. The deputy head Sylvia Gayle was calling for the first years to wait with her, while instructing the older students to make their way into the main dining area. The main building contained the vast main dining room, much like the one at the castle, situated directly above the kitchen, which neither of them had ever seen but Harry assumed it was also similar to the one in the castle. To one side was the staff room, which was furnished rather nicely with lounge chairs, a kitchenette and a large table for marking. On the other side was a smaller dining area, which they had been using before the commencement of term. They went into the main dining room with the older students where there were five tables, a head table for the teachers and four for the students, it took them by surprise that they were not house tables, as they were used to, but the students sat wherever they liked and they could see by the satisfying mixture of coloured jackets that the house divide witch had been so prevalent at the castle was virtually non-existent. They took their seats at the head table. Ten minutes later, once everyone was seated The Principal, Richard Tiller, a tall muscular man with quite long and slightly scruffy grey hair addressed the room. 

‘Welcome back every one. I hope you all had a good holiday. We'll start with the sorting and then I have some announcements, then we can eat, I don't know about any of you but I'm starving.’

With that he sat in his chair (witch Draco was pleased to note, looked exactly like everyone else’s) The Deputy head, Sylvia Gayle lead the first years in. Much like Professor McGonagall had done for them, she placed a three legged stool in front of everyone on top of which she placed a battered old hat. It was however not a pointed hat as theirs had done it began to sing:

‘Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat m'self if ya can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your fezzes red,

Your top hat's shiny and tall

For I'm the Station sorting hat and I can top them all.

Ther's nuthin' in your head

The sorti'n hat can't see,

So try us on and we'll tell ya

Where ya s'posed t' be

You could be a Gryffindor

Where they’re brave at heart,

Daring nerve and chivalry

Set you all apart;

Ya might be where they're just and loyal,

Hufflepuffs are patient,

And unafraid of toil;

Or maybe wise old Ravenclaw'

If you got a ready mind,

Where witty learners'

Will always find their kin;

Or maybe Slytherin,

If that tickles your fancy,

But never fear,

We’re all friends here,

So try me on and see,

If your jacket is,

Yellow, Green, Blue or Burgundy.’

 

The deputy head looked at the hat pointedly and called each student by name, as they were sorted Their Jackets were handed to them and they sat wherever there was space. When this was over the principal, stood to address the students.

 

‘There are a few start of term notices before dinner, now if you all listen we can get through them quicker and we can all eat the lovely food that has been prepared for us by Miss Kathrine and the elves. It looks delicious, I was down there just before you all arrived. To all the new students we have a Zero tolerance no bullying policy. If you are caught, and you will be, you will be expelled, that means no discrimination of any kind, there will not be any form of appeal if you are caught. We don’t tolerate discrimination here, including but not limited to: blood status, gender, race, religion, house, sexual orientation or anything else. That is your one warning, head it. Secondly, on a lighter note we have four new teachers this year. Mr Harry Potter, will be teaching Defence Against The Dark Arts, yes it is 'the' Harry Potter please leave him be. You know who you are. Mr Draco Malfoy, will be taking Potions. Mrs Jessica Hook, will be taking Care of Creatures, and finally, Miss Katlyn Moffatt who will be heading up our Humanities department and taking the Drama courses. Thirdly, classes will start at eleven tomorrow morning so you can all have a chance to settle in tonight. And finally I am pleased to announce that this year's school Musical production is Annie and our play will be The Merchant of Venice, auditions will be held at eleven o'clock on Saturday morning, the sign-up sheet will be on the noticeboard in the foyer. Now without further ado, let’s eat.’ With that the food appeared on the tables in front of them.

Harry turned to Draco, while serving his dinner.

‘Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak.’ Draco laughed. The rest of the table, and a few of the closer students looked puzzled.

‘Did you like the hat? The song was so much better than ours.’

An older woman, who was sitting to the other side of Draco cut in.

‘The wording's supposed to be exactly the same as yours, but the hat refuses to do it, changes bits every year. Drives Sylvia and Richard nuts.’

‘That's great I love it.’

‘I like how he took out the bits that make us sound bad, it's just, 'or Slytherin, if that tickles your fancy.' let's wright to McGonagall, you recon she'd go for it?’

‘She might if I suggested it, I'll send Shylock tomorrow.’ Shylock was Harry's wedge tailed eagle and he was beautiful.

They conversed through two courses (a much more reasonable number than the seven they were given when they first arrived at the castle) when the hall gradually emptied and all the students had gone to bed, or at least their common rooms the teachers finally started leaving. Draco and Harry, still in conversation had decided to migrate to the lounge of the small building where they lived with another teacher. They had discovered in the past three days that they actually had far more in common than they had ever considered.

‘I can't work out why we weren’t friends at school you know Draco.’

‘Because I was an arrogant daddy's boy, and you, well, you were to fiercely loyal to Weas- Ron after you had known him for all of six hours, witch, in hindsight, is kind of sweet.’

‘Sweet? Fair enough.’

‘Anyway, do you want to start that story tonight? It’s not that late.’ Harry said looking at his watch.

‘Alright, shall we make tea first?’

They did so, and sat down in their lounge five minutes later.

‘Shall I start from the very beginning or just school?’

Draco pondered for a moment.

‘From the beginning if you don't mind.’

‘Why not? I'm going to go through the first ten and a bit years really quick, because nothing much happened. So, I'm born, for the first year or so everything’s fine, but then, it happens, Voldemort comes. Dad zap, Mum Zap Voldemort Poof, me all alone in the house until Snape comes and finds me, or rather my Mum, who he holds on the floor for an indeterminate amount of time, because he is madly in love with her, has been since they were kids, and that is essentially why he became a triple agent, because he loved her till the day he died. If I had known this, most of my life would have made far more sense but never mind. Anyway some time later Snape has left and Hagrid comes and collects me from the ruins and takes me to, and this is a great address: Number four Privet drive, Little Whinging, sounds like a happy place. That's where my troubles really began, here I am one year old, wrapped in a blanket on the doorstep of possibly the three most disagreeable human beings ever to have walked the earth, though, to be fair on Dudley he is quite a nice guy now that he’s out from under his parent’s thumbs, can’t fathom how that happened. Next ten years or so, at school, at home, there's no escape. Fairly frequently I'm locked in the cupboard under the stairs with no food for an indeterminate amount of time.  For anything from breathing too loudly to sneezing at the table or having my hair mysteriously grow back over night. Then, Dudley's eleventh Birthday, we go to the zoo. Normally I stayed with Mrs Fig from down the road, who happened to be a squib, which I didn't know until about fourth year or so, but she had broken her leg so I had to go with Vernon, Petunia, Dudley and his best mate, They weren’t as bad as usual because they were distracted. After lunch we went to the reptile house where I got into a conversation with a boa constrictor, which I then inadvertently set on Dudley, admittedly quite satisfying. I was locked in the Cupboard for about two months for that. Then, a couple of days before I turn eleven these letters start coming, I only get one to begin with, then for the next week I get more and more every day, so, about Thursday, Vernon boards up the mail flap, then when that didn't work he proceeded to board up the whole house, which still didn't work. Then Sunday, He's all relaxed because post doesn't come to Muggles on Sundays. Then about five billion letters come flying down the chimney, in hindsight quite amusing. Vernon then throws me out of the room and tells us all to pack a bag. We then proceed to drive around the countryside for the rest of the day. That night we end up in a hotel, the letters are still delivered there by the hundred Then we leave, drive around for another day, wind up, literally in a hut on a rock, in the middle of the sea midnight. I'm freezing my toenails off because Dudley's got all the blankets, storm raging outside. Then there’s this banging on the door. All of a sudden, door breaks down, Hagrid's standing there, he hands me my letter followed by a cake, then he gives Dudley a Pig's tail. I didn't say that though, you didn't hear me say it. Next day we go to Diagon alley where I met you for the first time and we buy all my things. Then time goes by, we get on the train and we go to Hogwarts, get sorted. I decide that Snape hates my very essence and that he must be totally Evil, and you were his favourite, so therefore you were just as evil. I am sorry about that by the way. Then we had that flying lesson and your attempt to get me expelled backfired spectacularly and got me a spot in the Quiddich team, a sport I knew nothing about at the time. Then there was that whole business with the duel. Running from Peeves that night we found Fluffy, Hagrid’s three headed dog, in the third floor corridor that was out of bounds that year. Anyway, we worked out, by some searching in the library and some twisting of Hagrid's arm that he was guarding the Philosopher’s Stone. Meanwhile I got my Nimbus 2000 and started Quiddich practice. Then Halloween came around and Quirrell let that troll into the castle so he could scope out the Third floor. We all got sent to our common rooms, but Ron had put his foot in his mouth, as he is so prone to do and said something to Hermione, who then spent the entire afternoon crying in the girls bathroom so we went to rescue her. We ended up fighting a fully grown mountain troll and by some miracle, lived to tell about it. During the Christmas Holidays, I found The Mirror of Erased. Which is basically a great big old mirror that shows you 'the deepest and most desperate desires of your heart' anyway I kept going back to it, night after night, then it got moved to, well, under Fluffy. We discovered not long after about the Philosopher’s Stone and then there was a Dragon egg  Quirrell had given to Hagrid after worming Fluffy’s achilles heel out of him. At this point, we thought that Quirrell was the one trying to stop Snape from getting at the stone, but actually it was the other way around. Anyway, the dragon hatched, which you saw. And we got detention in the forbidden forest from McGonagall after you and Fang left me I got rescued by a centaur who scared Quirrell off. Then just before the end of term, after exams, we decided to go down the trap door under Fluffy. We put him to sleep, then we landed in devils snare, which nearly killed Ron. We had to play a massive game of chess, in which Ron was nearly killed again. Then a riddle with potions and coloured fire. Then I ran into Qurrell and the mirror in the next one.  Because of a love shield I couldn’t touch Quirrell without causing him pain, then he just sort of fell to bits. Next thing I know Voldemort’s ghost thing is headed straight for me and I wake up in the hospital wing with Dumbledore explaining things, in hindsight, would have been nice to know ahead of time. Next thing we're on the train home.’

There was silence for a moment.

‘Harry, do you mind if I ask, what did you see in the Mirror of Erased?’

‘My Parents. There was something else there too, it was just a grey shadow I couldn’t see it properly. You know, I always wondered what that was. How about you?’

‘I have never even heard of the thing before tonight Harry.’

‘Hypothetically though.’

‘Honestly, I never really wanted for anything back then. A place like this perhaps, or parents like the Wesleys.’

‘Say, you think this place has a room of requirement?’

‘I assume so. What are you thinking?’

‘We could try and find it, I mean It’s worth a shot, the mirror was in our room of requirement that day and I seem to remember seeing as a footnote in Hogwarts, A History saying that there was some connection between the rooms of requirement. If that’s true we could theoretically summon it.’

‘Not a bad Idea, you think it’s still in one peace?’

‘I expect so, about half the chamber fell on it first year and it was fine.’

‘Hey Harry, can I ask your advice?’

‘The great Draco Malfoy, asking for advice, why Draco, I think you’ve grown.’ The other man rolled his eyes at this. ‘Sorry, stirring, been here a week and already gone native. What’s on your mind?’

‘I have first year’s tomorrow afternoon then Friday. Should I give them the speech?’

‘Witch one?’

He replied in his best impression of his late godfather witch was admittedly quite good: ‘There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don’t expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few. Who possess. The predisposition, I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death. Then again, maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel confident enough to not pay attention!’

‘You should totally do it. Friday after lunch?’ The other man nodded. ‘Can I sit in?’

‘Sure, love to have ya.’

‘You’ve gone native too.’ Harry teased.

‘Shut up Potter.’ Draco retorted in a playful tone.

‘Don’t forget the Bezoar.’

‘Of course! The bezoar, what else did he ask you?’

‘You mean you weren’t listening?’ Another eye roll. It was Harry’s turn to imitate their old potions master. ‘What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood? Where would you look if I told you to find me a Bezoar?  And what is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?’

‘I have to use those too. Who you got Thursday after lunch?’

 ‘Third years, want to sit in?’

‘Sure, what are you covering?’

‘I’ll know more after I have the other stream on Tuesday, but I want to start with something practical. Perhaps some disarming, some more advanced stuff if they need it.’

‘Are you planning on teaching Patronuses?’

‘Yea, I’m thinking of doing it individually though. I found that worked rather well.’

‘I’ll take some if you like, Severus taught me the summer after sixth year.’

‘Really, what is it?’

‘I wish I could say something cool like a snake or a dragon, but it’s- I’ll show you’ He stood, took a deep breath and thought of those summer days with Snape in his potions lab. His first Quiddich game. The day he got his Hogwarts letter. The day he arrived at the station, and his fresh start. The result was a formless ball of blue energy.

‘Your patronus is omnipotent? That’s so cool. I’ve never seen one before.’

‘Severus told me it was because I was in a transitional phase when I learned it. Apparently it’ll change eventually. What’s yours?’

‘Transient now, it depends on the memories I use but originally it was a stag. That’s what I say it is in interviews.’

‘Transient’s good, has the advantage of not being overly Identifiable as yours. Do you get asked that often in interviews?’

‘Guaranteed, every interviewer asks me: What is your Patronus? Will there be a Mrs Potter any time soon? And either do you still play Quiddich? Or do you still spend time with the Weasleys? And most of the time: What did it feel like to kill Voldimort?’

‘What’s the answer to the others?’

‘My patronus is a stag. No there is not going to be a Mrs Potter anytime soon. I still occasionally I play Quiddich. I see the Weasley’s fairly often. I usually deflect the last one. It’s not something I like to talk about.’

‘Understandable. Do you see many of the others from our year?’

‘I still see the Weasleys quite a bit and  Hermionie. I’ve seen a bit of Neville Longbottom and I see Dean Thomas and Shamus Finnegan every now and then, they’re good company. I’ve seen most of the others at press conferences and things after the war too.’

‘Are they together, Dean and Shamus? I remember a rumour.’

‘Yea, they are. There was a betting pool in Grifindor tower in about fourth year as to when that would actually happen. They were already together at the time, so the Weasley Twins won that one, about four galleons it ended up. How about you, you see many of the people in our year?’

‘I saw Blaise and Pansy a few times before I came out here and I spent last Christmas with Greg and Millicent but that’s about it. Harry?’ Draco was unsure how to broach the subject. Harry made the universally recognised sound for ‘continue’ and Draco did. ‘If people ask about what we did in the war…’ He tapered off.

‘What do we say? I’ve been thinking about that too. I was thinking along the lines of: We fought in the war, we both lost people and three members of our class died. We don’t need to go into sides and if they press, tell them, in the politest way possible, that it’s none of their damn business.’

‘You’re good at this.’ He remarked.

‘I’ve had a lot of practice.’ He continued, by way of explanation. ‘Kingsley made me do five thousand press conferences after the war.’

‘Why can’t he do his own press conferences?’

‘Basically, because I’m cooler. If anyone from school come to visit we’ll ask them to say the same thing.’

‘Thanks, I appreciate it. Is anyone from school coming here?’ He asked, wanting to put off seeing Ron and Herminie, or any of the other members of their class for as long as possible. His friendship with Harry had come about remarkably fast and he was fairly certain he wouldn’t get that lucky again.

‘Neville’s coming to visit at some point, not sure when but he’s promised to speak in a couple of classes while he’s here.’ Draco’s face fell slightly, of all the people who he had no right to expect anything from, Neville Longbottom was second to none.

‘What is it?’

And Draco told him. ‘He’s a hero Harry, you were there that day, when we all thought you were dead, he stood up. He stood up to the most powerful dark wizard who ever lived and he answered him back. He’s the reason I stood with you at the very end.’

‘Draco, he was there that day. He saw you stand with us. He saw you risk everything you had. And I’ve gotta tell you, he noticed. He has nearly as much respect for you as you do for him.’

‘Wait, he does’

‘And let me tell you, Neville Longbottom has always been a hero and he has a good heart.’ In truth, Draco had always known this, and to a greater extent than most. He had seen Neville day after day in that last year at Hogwarts, holding his head high through everything the Carrows did. Even before that when it had been Draco himself tormenting him day after day. Yes if there was one person who he deserved absolutely nothing from, it was Neville Longbottom.

‘I know.’ He whispered, so quietly, the other man almost missed it.

They conversed until it was quite late about nothing in particular.


	3. An Adventure In Teaching

The following morning at about eight o’clock Harry and Draco made their way to the dining hall. The room was again buzzing with animated chatter over copious amounts of cereal and toast. They found that Richard Tiller, the principal, as well as some of the other teachers were sat with the students leaving the head table conspicuously empty. They were waved over by Jayne McLoney, the Ravenclaw seeker who they had met on the train. They joined her and a cluster of her cousins and siblings. Two were first years, Jayne’s sister, Indiana McLoney of Slytherin who resembled her very much, and their cousin, James Moore, a quite small and freckle covered Ravenclaw. Fifth year Twins, Kate, the Gryffindor seeker, and Rosallie McLoney, a Slytherin chaser. The pair of them looked very much alike and had they been in the same house telling them apart would have been impossible. As it was, it was only the fact that they were in different coloured t-shirts that differentiated them. Another two sixth years, Roxane Moore and Jayne’s twin Joel, the Slytherin and Huffelpuff seekers respectively.

‘My goodness your Christmas dinners must be interesting.’ Harry thought aloud. ‘All four of you are seekers?’

‘We do have subs, but yea.’ Joel replied. ‘It’s good in a way because every match one of us wins and one of us loses.’

‘Who’s the most competitive?’ Draco asked, genuinely curious.

Half the table piped up in response with a resounding ‘Jayne and Joel’ Harry and Draco didn’t know this at this point, but the twins had a rivalry parallel to their own. Despite this they were incredibly close, and had been known to start the odd prank war that would inevitably drag the whole school in, staff included. Something that would happen on more than one occasion in the coming year.

This conversation continued for another hour or so and the rest of the students slowly filtered through until, at about ten o’clock Draco and Harry left in the direction of their classrooms. Quite by chance the, very large Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom was immediately next to the, slightly smaller, Potions one. Both rooms seemed to be a very long way from the main building, they had been told by their predecessors that flying was the best way to get around on the station, either that or riding. The pair of them being the avid flyers that they were opted for the former. Having still just over an hour before their classes were due to begin they decided to go for a fly. This would rapidly turn into a daily occurrence after breakfast each morning. On this particular morning they were not the only ones to have the same thought, though they often would be. They joined a cluster of fifth years, among them Kate and Rosalie McLoney.

For classes, like everything else on the station the houses were mixed and each year level was randomly divided into groups of about twenty. The Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom was, along with the main Drama classroom, the largest in the school. They had perhaps once been shearing sheds. Like the majority of the school, it was made of stone with a corrugated iron roof and exposed eves.  The space was mostly bare save for the theory area which housed a bookshelf, a blackboard and a sizable desk in front of twenty smaller desks arranged in front of the blackboard. Harry had not had time to make the room his own yet and so it was rather plain. Some of the teachers who had been on the station for several years had the walls lined with photos of students and other staff on the camping trips witch happened every long weekend. It seemed to Harry that these came about once a fortnight and occasionally twice. These rooms seemed to have a ‘lived in’ quality.

Harry’s first class were seventh years. They were a nice bunch, as seemed to be the case school wide.

‘Good morning, I hope you are all eager to start your seventh year. I’m Harry Potter. As with most of the teachers here Harry is fine outside class. I’m not overly concerned about what you call me in class, Harry is fine, just not in front of Mrs Gayle or Mr Tiller then it’s either Mr Potter or Sir, but please don’t call me Sir I’m not even twenty. I’ll do my best to learn all your names, and I will, might take a while though. I’m going to call the roll now, just wave or whatever when I call your name, you know the drill.’

Justin Andrew, A tall Ravenclaw; Ken Archer, A muscular Hufelpuff; Rupert Blake, A bookish Ravenclaw; Liam Bond, Short and thin; Charles Darcy, An actor, Both Gryffindor’s; Olivia Elwood, A cheery Ravenclaw; Sophie Harrison, A tomboy in Gryffindor; Lara Hastwell, In the show choir; Mary Jackson, a sharp shooter; Amelia James, A skilled fencer, All Slytherins; Michael Jammison, Another gifted fencer, Gryffindor; Alexis Keating, A Dancer; Evan Logan, A poet, Both Ravenclaw; Thomas Marlowe, Another actor; Julian McKenney, Almost a healer; Layla Moore, A parselmouth, All Hufelpuff; Audrey Neilson, A gifted pianist, Gryffindor; Mason O’Malley, A gymnast; Isaac Pike, A playwright, Both Slytherin; and Jackson Wilde, an extraordinary Hufelpuff with something to hide.

‘Now that’s done. I have a quiz, just to see where you’re at. I’m sorry to do this to you on the first day of seventh year but your last teacher was a bit vague as to where you are at. After that we’ll do some practical stuff.’

The class went on rather smoothly. The class was farther along than Harry had thought, or even hoped, they would be. He had managed to teach them two relatively complex counter curses and they had all been focused and eager to learn, something that was a recurring theme across the school.

* * *

 

Next door the potions classroom, though marginally smaller than the Defence Against the Dark Arts room, was spacious enough to be comfortable, even with the shelves upon shelves of potions ingredients lining the walls. Among the various ingredients were various items in jars that, by rights shouldn’t have been. This was a trait Draco had picked up from Severus. The shelves in his classroom had always had various items that served no practical purpose in a potions classroom. Severus had once told him that he and Lilly Evans (later Potter) had joked about doing this while they were at school,  during those summers when he could pretend, for just a little while that she was his. As Draco was the closest thing he had ever had to a son, Severus left him everything he owned. At Draco’s desk sitting in pride of place was his Godfather’s favourite caldron atop an almost ornate stand. Both had been a birthday gift while they were still at school from Lilly. It was a fact known only to privileged few that Severus Snape had an excellent sense of humour. Draco counted himself lucky that he was one of those people along with Lilly Potter and, strangely enough Remus Lupin.

Draco’s first class was the other half of the seventh years: Jessica Combes, president of the writers club, a Hufelpuff; Samuel Coulby, a sharp shooter, Gryffindor; Alison Dean, an actor in Ravenclaw; Sienna Elson, a classical violinist, Slytherin; Alice Fitzgerald, a dab hand at poker, among other things, Hufelpuff; Declan Garrett, a spectacular tenor, again Hufelpuff; Isabella Graves, a Soprano of similar calibre, Ravenclaw; Elisa Jammison, another actor, Slytherin; Mark Kirk, a base baritone, Hufelpuff; Christian Knight, a dancer; Robert Lawrence, a photographer, both Gryffindor; Zachary McLoney, a Potions prodigy, Ravenclaw; Emma Morris, a mystery writer; Amber Newman, another actor, both Slytherin; Jasmine O'Neil, a geek, in every sense; Adam Peterson, a painter, both Gryffindor; John Provis, a charms prodigy, Hufelpuff; Matthew Stout, a composer; Dominic Swift, an actor, the station’s model couple, both Ravenclaw; And Georgia Wright, another actor, Slytherin.

Draco was rather nervous, something he seldom experienced and admitted to even less. He briefly clasped the medallion that he always kept in his pocket. He turned it over in his hand and opened the door to the classroom.

‘I am Draco Malfoy, for those who haven’t met me yet. As seems to be the norm around here outside class, Draco is fine. I didn’t like the concept when I got here a week ago but I rather like it now, what can I say, this place has rubbed off on me. Draco is fine in class too, not in front of Mr Tiller or Mrs Gale, for obvious reasons. Now, who in this room has done the reading?’ A scattering of hands were raised. ‘Now who has actually done the readings?’ one hand, attached to Zachary Moore, the potions prodigy, remained raised. ‘Ah, thought as much, ten points to Ravenclaw, rest of you do it this week, we can’t do the potion I was planning to unless you have. This week, pick a potion, any potion I want to observe your technique.’

Draco spent the rest of the lesson observing mostly flawless techniques. The end of the lesson saw several sleeping potions, a handful of ‘Pepper-Up’ potions, a selection of headache remedies, and pleasingly no love potions. There was also a particularly impressive batch of a peculiar potion that makes the drinker’s body change colours at a rate of two a minute for an hour, in all the colours of the rainbow. It had originally had another use, but nobody seems to remember it, and it is widely used at Pride events. More impressive still was that he had adapted the potion to add luminescence and increase the transition speed. He had had also began, over the holidays, to increase it’s duration, though this was not perfected yet.

Draco dismissed the class and retrieved his broomstick from its place behind his desk and followed them out. Quite by chance Harry and his class emerged from the room next door at about the same time.

‘How’d it go?’ Harry enquired as soon as the students were out of ear shot.

‘Really good actually, one of them, Zachary McLoney, adapted a ‘Pride Potion’ to increase the transition speed and add luminescence. You?’

‘Pretty good too. Most of them mastered, or nearly did, the counter curse for the full body bind.’

‘Really? I still haven’t got that one quite right.’

‘For what it is, the counter curse is ridiculously complicated. I’ll teach you if you like.’

‘Sure, one weekend?’

‘Done. Race you to lunch?’

‘I like the way you think Harry.’

With that they were off. It took them roughly a minute to get to the main building. When they arrived they found that the teacher’s table was again empty. They joined a small group of first years who were eating sandwiches from a platter in front of them and chatting excitedly.

‘Hello, I’m Draco and this id Harry. How’s your first day going?’

‘Pretty good.’ one of the Gryffindor girls piped up, there’s that Gryffindor courage.

‘What have you just come from?’ Draco asked.

‘Drama.’ Another girl, Ravenclaw this time replied.

‘Half your luck.’ Harry commented. ‘Are you finding your way around alright?’

‘I think so, it’s a big place though.’ It was a Hufelpuff boy this time.

‘I know what you mean, we’re new here too.’

‘Didn’t go to school here?’ Asked an inquiring Slytherin girl.’

‘No, we went to Hogwarts in England, well Scotland.’ Harry told her.

‘Really?’ It was a Hufelpuff girl. ‘What was it like?’

‘It was pretty cool, lived in a castle for seven years.’ Draco again.

‘Witch one’s better?’ The Ravenclaw girl asked a little timidly.

The two men looked at each other, then said, almost in unison ‘This one.’

‘How come?’ It was the Ravenclaw again.

‘Well,’ Harry began, ‘The People are nicer here.’

‘And’ Draco continued ‘This place is more practical. For example, we had to write with quills, which is basically a feather with a nib on it that you have to dip in ink. Witch sounds really cool, and it is, but after a certain point it is just much easier to use a pen.’

‘We also had assigned house tables so you could only sit with the people in your house.’ Harry continued. ‘And the teachers always sat at the head table.’

‘And unless you were really lucky, like Harry and I were, the teachers didn’t know you at all, some of them didn’t even bother to learn your name.’

‘Also, the staircases moved, again, sounds really cool but when you’re running late for class and the staircase decides to take you back the way you came on a whim, it gets very old, very quickly.’

‘The walls would move every now and then as well and, as a result, we were constantly getting lost.’

‘I would have gotten lost three times in fifth year.’ Harry added helpfully

‘What have you got this afternoon?’ Harry asked.

‘Potions.’ It was the Hufelpuff.

‘Excellent, you’re with me then.’ He cast a ‘Tempus’. It was twenty minutes to two. ‘That reminds me, I have some things to get ready for the lesson. Harry, can you give us a hand?’

‘Sure. It was nice meeting you all.’

The two of them left, collecting their brooms from beside the main doors, where there were about a dozen lined up, on the way out. Once they were outside and clear of the buildings they took flight. One of the many things they had in common was that everything seemed so much clearer from the air. They began to circle each other.

‘Who have you got next?’

‘Fourth years. Everyone has pretty much the same lesson plan this week though, the last guy was very vague as to where everyone was at so the lessons are all basically the same. Introduce self, assess abilities and give practical work. I thought you needed help with prep.’

‘I do but we have some time, let’s go.’

They touched down outside Draco’s classroom. Harry had only been inside twice before. Once when they had first arrived and the room was almost empty, and again the following day, before Draco had set any of his personal belongings in place. Harry, as he was prone to do, was snooping Draco’s shelves. Every jar labelled in his immaculate handwriting. Except some witch were labelled in another, very familiar, hand that of Severus Snape.

‘You still use his ingredient jars?’

‘Hm? Oh those. They’re not actually ingredients. He used to keep them on the shelves because they look cool. Also to see if anyone noticed. Bring me some semi-menacing looking ones will you?’

‘Fenny snake, eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat, tongue of dog, blind-worm's sting, lizard's leg, howlet's wing. That’s Macbeth, I never pegged Severus as the Shakespeare type. Wait these don’t do stuff, I’m crushed.’

‘Actually, fenny snake has properties and so does eye of newt. I’ve never used them though and Severus told me he only ever used them once. He was quite fond of Shakespeare. He was an artist so he appreciated art in all its forms. There was some solidarity he had with the written word. The more underappreciated of the art forms appealed to him most.’

‘Just on the desk?’

‘Yea, thanks.’ Harry did so, arranging them artfully on the old desk around the cauldron.

‘Nice cauldron by the way.’ Harry remarked, examining it closely.

‘Thanks, Severus left it to me, it was his favourite. Your Mum gave it to him actually.’

‘Really?’

‘While they were at school, yea.’

‘You know I wish I’d known the Severus you knew.’

‘You’d have liked him I think. He’d have liked you if you didn’t remind him so much of your Dad.’

At five minutes to two Harry left for his own classroom, finding a small group of eager first years chattering enthusiastically outside the door whom he greeted. There were also two fourth years under the veranda outside Harry’s classroom chatting.

‘You can come in if you like.’ He said to them as he opened the door. They internally debated this and as the day was quite hot, they followed.

Once Harry’s Class had slowly trickled in, nearly on time: Twins June, an adventurous Slytherin; and Lillian Archer a bookish Ravenclaw; Ben Dodge a fencer, also Ravenclaw; Logan Eve, a tenor, of Gryffindor; Kira Everett, a saxophonist, Hufelpuff; Henry             Faulding, a potions prodigy; Phoebe Hardgraves, an alto, both Ravenclaw; Erin Herrod, an actor;  Sean Karev, a trombonist, both Hufelpuff; Dylan Knight, a beater, Slytherin; Kurt McKensey, a soprano, Gryffindor; Kathryn Moore, a Photographer, Hufelpuff; Simon Morant, a sharp shooter; Skyla Newman, a fencer; Hunter Phelps, a baritone, all Gryffindor; Matthew Powers, another fencer, Ravenclaw; Erin Silver, a playwright, Slytherin; Allan Thomas, another alto, Hufelpuff; Eden Woods, a bard;  and John Yates, a lithe beater, both Slytherin.

‘Good afternoon fourth years. I’m Harry Potter and I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, hopefully for the rest of your time here on the station. Firstly, outside of this classroom, like most of the teachers here, you are welcome to call me Harry, in fact I prefer it. Secondly, inside the classroom I’m not overly concerned with what you call me, either Harry or Mr Potter is fine unless Mr Tiller or Mrs Gayle happen to be around, in which case it’s Mr Potter or Sir, but please don’t call me Sir. You’ll have to bear with me as I learn all your names. The first thing we’re going to do is a quiz,’ there was a groan. ‘Don’t be like that it’s just to see where you’re at, your last teacher was a bit vague. After that we’re going to get into some practical stuff.’ The mood in the room brightened considerably at this prospect.

The quiz only took them about twenty minutes. Harry continued the class the same way he had done with his seventh years, and would do with the rest of his classes this week.

‘Can anyone tell me what a Patronus is?’ a handful of hands went up. He indicated John Yates, the lithe Slytherin beater who was in the middle of the room.

‘A Patronus charm, conjures a guardian comprised of positive energy and emotion.’

‘Excellent…’

‘John, John Yates.’

‘Excellent John, five points to Slytherin. Has anyone ever tried to conjure a Patronus?’ as predicted nobody had. ‘Has anyone ever seen a Patronus before?’ Again no one had. ‘There are three types of corporeal Patronus: Omnipotent, which is very rare. Transient, which is slightly less rare. And Stagnant which is the most common. A stagnant Patronus will usually take the form of a particular animal. A transient Patronus will change form depending on the memories used to conjure it. While an omnipotent Patronus, which I have only ever seen one of, is a formless ball of energy. Unlike incorporeal patronuses an omnipotent patronus can be used to convey messages. It’s really cool to see and I will try to persuade the person who has one to show you. But for now I’ll show you mine.’

He called to mind the memory he treasured most. The memory of Neville stepping up from beneath the ashes, when everything seemed lost, sward of Gryffindor in hand decapitating Nagini and standing up to the most powerful dark wizard ever to have lived when everyone else was ready to turn away. Even after everything he’d been through, stepping so naturally into the lead.

He cast his Patronus, a majestic lion made of near blinding blue light and shimmering energy rose up, stayed for a moment, peering around the room, before dissipating. The room was abuzz with excitement and anticipation.

‘Before you get too excited we aren’t learning patronises today, reason being, I find it much more effective to teach them one on one. Fifth years and above take precedence so see me starting the first of next month and we’ll arrange a time with either myself or Mr Malfoy. Today we are going to work on the leg locker curse and counter curse so pair up and move over to the practice area and I’ll demonstrate.’

As predicted most of the class knew the leg locker curse though very few could do the counter curse. By the end of the day Harry was pleased with their progress. He was also pleased to note that they all had nearly flawless aim. Throughout the entire practical there were only three curses that missed their intended target, only one of which had hit him. After dismissing them and giving the room the once over he collected his broom from where it stood against a wall behind his desk and made his way to see how Draco’s class of first years had gone.

* * *

 

After Harry left for his classroom Draco had spent five minutes channelling Severus. Before the class came in he turned the medallion in his pocked over in his hand.  When his first years had taken their seats his eyes flashed with mischief. And he began.

‘There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don’t expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few. Who possess, the predisposition I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death.’ At this point he found that one Hufelpuff boy was sitting in his seat with a quite obviously feigned look of abject boredom. A Ravenclaw boy was dutifully taking everything down and a Gryffindor girl hanging intently off his every word. Perfect. ‘Then again,’ He addressed the Ravenclaw’ maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel confident enough to not pay attention!’ As predicted the Hufelpuff boy snickered. Perfect. He continued to address the Ravenclaw.

‘Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?’ The Ravenclaw gulped.

‘I don’t know.’ He said timidly.

The Gryffindor girl’s hand shot up and the Hufelpuff snickered.

He addressed The Hufelpuff next. ‘You tell me. Where would you look if I tell you to find me a Bezoar?’ The Hufelpuff turned white and said nothing. The Gryffindor girl almost leapt out of her seat ‘That’s what I thought, don’t laugh at people for not knowing something you don’t know yourself.’ The room was now dead silent, in either fear or interest. He then turned to a Slytherin girl in the front row. ‘Now you tell me, what is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?’

The Slytherin girl looked at him wide-eyed and replied ‘I don’t Know.’

By this point, the Gryffindor girl actually had leapt out of her seat. He turned to her. ‘You, what’s your name?’

‘Hannah Briggs.’ She replied.

‘And you have something to say Hannah?’

‘Yes.’ She said definitively, there’s that Gryffindor courage. ‘Asphodel and wormwood make a powerful sleeping potion known as the draught of living death. I would look for a Bezoar in the stomach of a goat and you would be asking for it because it will cure almost any known poison. Monkshood and Wolfsbane are the same plant which is also known as Aconite’

Draco’s face split into a smile. ‘Excellent Hannah,’ he tossed her a chocolate frog from his desk drawer, ‘Ten points to Gryffindor. The rest of you, take this as a lesson in reading ahead, that was about third year material, so don’t feel too bad about not knowing the answers. And never be afraid to say if you don’t know the answer. We’re here to teach you and you’re here to learn, you don’t need to know everything.’

After taking attendance: Kathryn Adams, a shy looking Ravenclaw; Jessica Austin, A New Zealander; Hugo Bailey, a tall boy, Both Hufelpuff; Tristan Bickford, whose mind was easily elsewhere, a Slytherin; Hannah Briggs, A girl who reminded Draco distinctly of Hermione, also a Gryffindor; Henry Cobb, a portly Hufelpuff; Nathaniel George, a singing Slytherin; Twins Benjamin a fencer, of Gryffindor; and Zachary Giles, an archer, of Slytherin; Summer Gill, a sharp shooter in Ravenclaw; Charlotte Harris, an actor, Gryffindor; Owen Jackson, a dancer, Hufelpuff; Kayla Lawrie, a reader, of Gryffindor; Rory Leonard, the Ravenclaw boy who Draco had called upon; Anthony Logan, the snickering Hufelpuff; Indiana McLoney, who he had met at breakfast, a Slytherin; Her cousin James Moore, a small boy, of Ravenclaw who he had also met; Clare Moran, the Slytherin he had called on; Aaron Poole, a farm boy of Gryffindor; And Angelina Smith, a city girl in Ravenclaw.

‘I do apologise. That was how my first potions lesson started and I couldn’t resist. I’ve met a couple of you today but for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Draco Malfoy. As with most of the teachers here you can call me Draco outside the classroom. Draco is also all right in the classroom, just not if Mr Tiller or Mrs Gayle are around. Have you all had a good day so far?’ There were nods across the board. ‘That’s good. Now, has anyone ever helped anyone make a potion before?’ Indiana McLoney and James Moore, who were sharing a bench both raised their hands. ‘How about watching, has anyone watched a potion being made before?’ a few more hands went up. ‘A few, that’s good. Now, in potions it’s very important that things like chopping and crushing ingredients is done properly. So this week we are just going to practice different ways of chopping and crushing things.’

Draco then transfigured small blocks of balsawood into various ingredients for practice. He spent the next hour and a half observing and correcting techniques. The end of the day came before he realised it so he set them a chapter of their textbooks to read before the next class and dismissed them, telling them not to bother packing up, figuring that he could clean all of them with a series of spells in the time it would have taken them to do their own by hand. They left chattering and laughing happily.

Harry joined him about five minutes later, after giving his own room a once over.

‘How’d it go?’ Draco, who hadn’t heard the other man come in and lean against the doorframe, jumped.

‘Pretty well actually. One of the Gryffindor girls actually reminds me a lot of Hermione. How about yours?’

‘Mine went pretty well too. They were impressed by my Patronus and I only got cursed once.’

‘Witch Patronus? And why is being cursed by a student a positive thing?’ They were both packing up the room by this point though nothing had been said on the matter.

‘Lion. And it’s a positive thing that it only happened once. It means that their aim is good.’

‘I see your point.’ There was a momentary pause. ‘Wait, you have a lion Patronus?’

‘Yea, he’s impressive. He’s only associated with one memory though.’

‘Can I see?’ Harry conjured it, Draco was impressed. He had seen a good number of patronuses, he at one point he had even seen Harry’s stag. He had seen only two as impressive as Harry’s lion and the other was Dumbledore’s Phoenix.


	4. Unexpected Talents

The week progressed similarly. Both Harry and Draco kept the same basic lesson plan for all their classes that week, introduce self, assess knowledge, observe. Wednesday came and went and soon enough Thursday afternoon rolled around. Draco had asked to sit in on Harry’s third years, their lesson being the one Harry had scheduled on Draco’s afternoon off. Draco couldn’t help an insatiable curiosity at what the other man would be like as a teacher. Whatever his methods, they were quite plainly effective, he had essentially trained an army to fight in a battle which they won despite being spectacularly outmanned and outgunned. This had not all been Harry of course but it had been almost entirely he and Neville.

Draco and Harry flew to the classroom just before the end of lunch, having eaten with Zachary McLoney, Draco’s seventh year potions prodigy, Matthew Stout and Dominic Swift, the station’s dream couple and Declan Garrett, a particularly gifted tenor. The four of whom seemed to come as a set. The conversation had been enjoyable and the six of them had a good deal of common ground.

There was no preparation required Harry’s third years as he had taught the other half earlier in the week. They tended to leave lunch early so they could fly together or even just talk. It had come as a surprise to both of them how much they enjoyed each other’s company, particularly after their time at school. They had come to know entirely different people since they had come to the station.

They were sat in the practical area of Harry’s classroom talking before the students arrived when Harry remembered the latest club he had come across.

‘You know there’s a parselmouth society here.’

‘Really?’

‘Yea, every second Tuesday. Apparently its way more common here than back home.’

‘Well that does actually make sense.’

‘It does?’

‘There are far more snakes in Australia than back home, so there’s more need for it. Also the wizarding population, of white Anglo-Saxons at least descended from something like seventy people, and parseltoungue being a partially genetic trait statistically more people will have the genome.’

‘Actually, that does make sense.’

‘I’m so wise.’

‘Of course you are Dragon.’ He replied in a mildly sarcastic yet fond tone.

There was a pause.

‘Did you just call me ‘Dragon’?’

‘Yes,’ he said almost sheepishly,’ I can stop if you like, I just wanted to try it out.’

‘No, I like it, I’ve just never had a proper nickname before, you know, apart from ‘ferret face’.’

It was at about this point that the third years started to arrive: James Altman, a very tall and muscular Hufelpuff; Edmond Andrews, an actor in Slytherin; Ethan Bering, A sharp shooter; Ellen Bishop, an archer, both Gryffindor; Mason Brown, an eternal optimist, Slytherin; Joshua Darcy, a nice boy, in possession of a fiery temper when provoked too far; Georgia Downer, a fencer, both Gryffindor; Susan Howell, a bookish Slytherin; Hannah Kent, a private Ravenclaw; Emily Lake, who had a rare command of the English language; Fredrick Lucas, a pianist, both Hufelpuff; Kirby Marshal, who had a knack for the game of cricket, a Ravenclaw; Tyler McArthur, a natural born leader, Slytherin; Alana   McCormack, another actor, a Hufelpuff; David McLoney, who was very good at charms; Gemma Roberts, an alto; Alicia Rodd, who had an aptitude for music, all Ravenclaw; Angus Webb, a dancer, Slytherin; Jonathan Will, whose numerous disasters in the kitchen were legendary, a Hufelpuff; And Mitchell Windsor, another actor, Gryffindor.

Once they were settled, which took very little time or effort on Harry’s part, he began the lesson.

‘Afternoon, for those who I haven’t had a chance to meet yet, I am Harry Potter. Either Harry or Mr Potter is fine, just please don’t call me Sir, I’m not that old.’ This earned him a brief spurt of scattered laughter. ‘In the back there is Draco Malfoy, he has graciously agreed to help me demonstrate today. First up we, and by we I mean you are doing a short quiz to assess your knowledge, because your last teacher was rather vague.’ The class pretended not to know what he meant by this. ‘After that we’re going to get into some practical stuff.’

Draco watched as Harry handed the tests around the room. Draco was transfixed by the way the other man interacted with his students, most of whom had taken an almost instant liking to him. While the class were doing the quiz Draco had joined him at the head of the class and they played Muggle snap. When the quizzes had been handed back twenty minutes later Harry demonstrated his lion Patronus to the class, as he had done in every class that week and there was a murmur of excitement in the room.

Harry quieted the class. ‘Alright, we’re not learning patronuses today.’ There was an air of disappointment in the room at this. ‘Reason being that Mr Malfoy and I will be taking students individually, the older student’s take precedence but starting the first of next month third and fourth years can contact me and make a time. Today we will be looking at disarming an opponent. Pair up and move over to the practice area please.’

Once they had done so Harry instructed them on the disarming charm that they had been taught at that first meeting of the duelling club in their second year. He and Draco then demonstrated it several times, they were both slightly reserved at first because of the connotations surrounding throwing spells at each other. After the first time they had relaxed a bit and began to enjoy themselves. They then roamed the space observing and correcting. They were both fairly liberal with house points, awarding between them about seventy by the end of the lesson when Harry dismissed the class. Once they had all left the room, mostly for the dormitory, some for the three clubs that met on a Thursday night, Harry broached a subject that, the principal, Richard Tiller, had spoken with him about that morning.

‘Richard asked me to coach the Ravenclaw Quidditch team this morning.’

‘Really? He asked me to take on the Hufelpuff team. You going to do it?’

‘I’m thinking about it. You?’

‘I think I will do it, could be fun, especially if you do it too. Our seekers would be the McLoney twins. You realise, they’re basically us.’

‘Could be fun, let’s do it.’

And so the decision was made.

‘There’s also the teacher-student mach.’ Harry hadn’t thought of that. In just about every competition school wide there was a showdown between a staff team and a combined student team at some point in the year. These were exceedingly popular and ridiculously competitive. None of the students ever had any reservations about competing with their teachers, in fact they seemed to revel in it. As things had turned out the staff team had lost their seeker and their keeper at the end of the previous year. He had been concerned when he heard this, they both had been. In less than a fortnight their friendship had progressed to a point where they were both comfortable with the concept of coaching opposing Quiddich teams. A concept that had come by surprise. But personally competing for a position and coaching opposing teams were two entirely different things.

Harry thought for a moment. ‘May the best man win.’

‘Oh, it’s on!’ Draco remarked, offering his hand witch Harry shook, noting, not for the first time, that Draco had gone native.

They informed Richard of their discussion to take on the Quidditch teams that evening outside the dining hall. A prospect with which he was delighted.

*************

The following afternoon Harry was observing Draco’s first year class. They had, as on the previous day, flown from the dining hall to the classroom after lunch. They had eaten with the sixth year McLoney twins, Jayne and Joel and the fourth year Slytherin beaters Dylan Knight and John Yates. They quickly, though not so much so that they were silent, set the potions classroom up the way they had done on the first day. The class trickled in: Riley Blake, a sweet faced Slytherin; Mason Cooper, an outgoing Gryffindor; Jack Delaney, who had a gift for transfiguration, a Hufelpuff; Alana Farrell, a musically gifted Slytherin; Alexis Gold, a softly spoken Ravenclaw; Caitlin Hyman, who seemed to have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth; Marcus Jefferson, a skilled hunt rider, both Gryffindor; Daniel Joseph, a gifted pianist; William Keen, a dancer, both Hufelpuff; Sebastian Langford, gifted in dressage riding, a Ravenclaw; Declan Lawrie, a farm boy through and through, a Gryffindor; Erin Marks, who spoke two languages, of Hufelpuff; Rachel Minge, very much a city girl, of Slytherin; Adam Pritchard, a fencer, of Ravenclaw; Timothy Radford, who had a blue healer named Corracticus, of Gryffindor; Natalie Ratcliffe, a quiet Ravenclaw; Georgia Rowe, an archer in Hufelpuff; Levi Searle, an avid reader in Slytherin; Dakota Stone, another archer, in Ravenclaw; And Alicia Yagan, a sharp shooter in Slytherin.

 Again Draco channelled Severus. ‘There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don’t expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few. Who possess. The predisposition. I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death.’ To his disappointment none of the students could be considered to not be paying attention. He turned on one of the Slytherin boys he had met the previous day: ‘Levi, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?’

‘I don’t know.’ He said with conviction. Draco was pleased, though he was again disappointed to find that the only other person in the room who did know the answer was Harry, whom he turned on with a certain glint in his eye witch did not go unnoticed by Harry.

‘Mr Potter, where would you look if I asked you to find me a Bezoar?’

‘Well Mr Malfoy, as a bezoar is a stone that will cure almost any poison, the first place I would look would be the shelves in this room. In fact I would look right here.’ He said indicating a jar labelled ‘Bezoar’ Harry had in fact chosen this spot for this very purpose. ‘If there wasn’t one there I would try your personal store. Then if I still couldn’t find one I would try the hospital wing. If I still couldn’t find one I would go to its source, which is the stomach of a goat. As for asphodel and wormwood, they make a powerful sleeping potion known as ‘The Draught of Living Death’, nasty stuff, tastes horrible.’ Draco would laugh at this later but for the moment he continued just as he had done the last time. Next he turned to the only other student in the room he had previously met, Timothy Radford.

‘Timothy, tell me, what is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?’

‘Should I know? I don’t.’ He said in a matter of fact tone of witch Draco was immeasurably proud.

‘No you shouldn’t don’t worry. Mr Potter will you enlighten us?’

‘They’re the same plant which is also known as Aconite.’

‘You’ll all have to forgive me for that, that’s how our first potions lesson started. For those of you who I haven’t had the chance to meet yet, I’m Draco Malfoy. As is the norm around here Draco is fine unless Mr Tiller or Mrs Gayle are around, in which case it’s Mr Malfoy or Sir, but please don’t call me sir, I’m not that old. Now. Has anyone ever helped someone make a potion before?’ No hands went up this time. ‘That’s ok. How about watching, has anyone ever watched a potion being made before?’ Several hands went up. ‘A few, that’s good. Don’t worry if you haven’t. The first thing we’re going to learn is how to chop and crush things properly. Because that’s very important in potion making.’

The lesson continued in much the same way as his other class of first years. He and Harry roamed the classroom observing and correcting techniques. Harry had not expected to see this from Draco, his students seemed to genuinely enjoy being taught by him and he seemed to genuinely enjoy teaching them. He had also not expected to see such patience from him when demonstrating techniques, for the sixth or seventh time. Teaching, it seemed was Draco’s calling. Draco looked to be one of those teachers who inspire. He certainly had a way with kids, something that also came as a surprise.

It was not until the end of the lesson, after Draco had instructed the class to pack up and dismissed them all for the weekend that he spoke directly to Harry again.

‘How’d I do?’

‘How’d you do? Why Dragon, I think you’ve found your calling.’

‘Thanks Harry.’ He said. ‘You’re not half bad yourself. ‘Where would you look for a bezoar?’ ‘Well, the first place I’d look is this jar here’ I enjoyed that. If you’d said that in first year I think Severus would have given you twenty points. ‘ At this point they could take no more and had burst into fits of laughter.

‘Come for a fly?’ Draco inquired, once they had both settled down enough to speak coherently. Harry replied in the affirmative and they took their brooms out to the paddock, conveniently right behind their classrooms. It was a nice afternoon and there were about a dozen other people who had the same idea. They could also see several people in the saddle not far from the stables. About three were at the show jumping track and the rest had taken to the various tracks on the station.

A harassed looking eagle owl had landed on the end of Harry’s broom soon after they took flight with a letter. Harry had then taken it from him and pocketed it. The animal then promptly tucked its head in and fallen asleep.

‘Who’s that from?’ Draco asked, curious.

‘Not sure, Hogwarts owl though. Maybe McGonagall.’

‘Did you end up sending her the letter about the sorting hat?’

‘I sent Shylock on Wednesday, he should be back sometime tonight or tomorrow.’

‘He can get from here to Scotland and back again in two days?’

‘I put a warp charm on him before he left so he can make the trip in about six hours. He had to make four or five stops once he got there though. This one must have been sent a while ago.’

‘I’ve never heard of a warp charm.’

‘I’m not surprised, I asked Sylvia how long it would take to send Shylock to Scotland and she showed me. Apparently it’s like the charm they use on express owls back home only it lasts a lot longer. I’ll teach it to you if you like.’

The warp charm was not a particularly difficult charm, it was in fact routinely taught in third year on the station. Their conversation drifted for a time as they flew high in the air. They were joined for a while by the seekers: Kate, Jayne and Joel McLoney and Roxanne Moore then later by the three musketeers: Zachary McLoney, Matthew Stout, Dominic Swift and Declan Garrett. When everyone started gravitating toward the dormitories at around five o’clock to get ready for the year’s second formal dinner; Harry and Draco, now alone again, decided to do the same. Formal dinners happened every other Friday, as well as on special occasions, on the station.

The teachers, at these dinners, were expected to wear black dinner jackets, not unlike the ones worn by the students. Their lapels, like the students were adorned with patches identifying extra-curricular activities and hometowns.  Teachers also had a patch directly under the latter identifying them by department in looping gold letters.


	5. The Weekend

Dinner that night was the first time the head table had been occupied since the start of term dinner on Sunday night. Many of the teachers and older students wore a shirt and tie under their jackets. Both Harry and Draco had opted to do this. Draco wore a dark grey shirt with an emerald silk tie that contrasted nicely with his , now slightly sun worn, but still, almost ghostly pale skin, though in Australia even the ghosts come somewhat tanned. Harry had originally opted for a white shirt and his old school tie but Draco had insisted he change. In the end he had opted for a light green shirt and black tie. They took their seats at the head table after being waylaid by several students.

Once the whole school and faculty were present the principal stood up to speak and, the rest of the room not having noticed this, a fifth year Hufelpuff boy whistled loudly causing the room to descend into silence.

‘Thank you Archie. You all know how much I hate giving long speeches so I’ll be brief. I hope you have all had a good first week back. I have gotten word from the CFA that the fire danger season should officially end this year on the sixth of June so, baring the usual obstacles, the first bonfire of the year will be the following Saturday. I am also pleased to announce that the new coach and manager of both the Ravenclaw and Hufelpuff Quidditch teams have been chosen, though no doubt you have all heard already, both Ravenclaw positions will be filled by Harry Potter and the Hufelpuff positions will be filled by Draco Malfoy. On the subject of Quidditch, tryouts will be next Saturday, there is a signup sheet in the foyer as of about an hour ago. And that’s about everything for now, as it’s only the first week. So let us eat, drink and be merry.’

The evening passed amid lively chatter, as every evening since the school year began had done. Shylock had arrived, just back from his run to Scotland, before desert with letters from McGonagall, Hermione and Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus, Dudley, and Luna. When Harry had taken them from him and put them safely in his inside pocket, Shylock, who seemed to have a flair for the dramatic, swooped around the room in a loop the loop before leaving.

When the evening was over and Harry and Draco were sat in their lounge room, Harry finally had time to open the letters Shylock and the harassed Hogwarts owl had brought, as predicted the latter had come from McGonagall.

‘Hey Dragon, listen to this: Dear Harry, I am writing on behalf of your old professors, Including the portraits of Professors Snape and Dumbledore, to wish you the best of luck in your new venture into teaching. Upon hearing about Mr Malfoy’s appointment as Potions Master at Hogwarts Station, many of us have expressed concern that the two of you will rekindle your infamous rivalry. I hope that this is not the case for the sake of my counterpart, your fellow staff, and your students. Sincerely Minerva McGonagall. P.S. As a professor yourself, you can call me Minerva.’

‘Who were the others from?’

Harry looked at the envelopes, ‘This one’s from Hermione and Ron, So Hermione. This one’s from Dean Thomas, so probably him and Seamus Finnegan. This one’s from Neville. Oh, Dudley sent that one, didn’t expect a reply from him. There’s another one from McGonagall. And this ones from Luna.’

‘What do they say?’

Harry scanned the letter from Hermione. ‘Hermione says she’s surprised we’re friends but glad we’re not at each other’s throats. She wishes us both luck. Ron’s scrawled some not very pleasant things in the margins, listen to this: I know I can’t tell you who to be friends with but, and this is in capitals, Malfoy, exclamation point. Are you feeling alright Harry? Ron does have a tendency to over react.’

Harry put Hermione’s letter aside in favour of Neville’s. ‘Neville says: Hi Harry, glad you and Malfoy, it feels weird calling you ‘Malfoy’ now,’ Harry interjected, ‘are getting on. Hope the teaching thing works out but it will. Regarding. Guest lecturing: I have managed to get two weeks off over the last week in May and the first week in June. I’m considering retiring from the Aurour Office, My heart’s just not in it anymore. I’m considering a career in Herbology, like I was before the war. In other news I’m going to ask Hannah to marry me, just not sure when. Hope you are both well, looking forward to seeing you.’

Next was Dean’s letter. ‘Hi Harry, it’s been a while. This is Dean by the way,’ Harry interjected, ‘Was a bit surprised to hear about you and Malfoy, but I’m glad. He’s obviously grown up a lot. Seamus and I would love to come and visit later in the year. We need a holiday. And then he goes on talking about their life for a bit. Apparently there might be news soon, not sure what.’

Luna’s letter was very similar, though it was much less concise and her tone was distinctly bubbly. McGonagall’s other letter was the best. Harry read it, chuckling.

‘Listen to this: Dear Harry, Regarding your relationship with Mr Malfoy, I’m not entirely convinced that you are not having me on. The portraits of Professors Snape and Dumbledore concur, though the former slightly less so. As you may be aware the branches of Hogwarts hold an annual symposium. As it will be held this year at Hogwarts station, I am inclined to attend, if only to see this impossible friendship for myself. The Students were both delighted and slightly terrified at your Eagle swooping into the Great Hall at dinnertime before stealing a chicken leg from Hagrid and leaving to wait at my office window for this letter. I expect at least a dozen requests to keep eagles in the coming weeks. R.E. the sorting hat. No we will not be changing the words. There are seven Hogwarts Sorting hats and yours is the only one who cannot manage to stay on page. With regards to the mixed table arrangements, I will bring it up at the next staff meeting. I do agree that this will help narrow the great chasm that is the house divide. I also agree that mixing houses from first year would be beneficial and I will bring it up at the aforementioned staff meeting. Sir Nicholas sends his regards, as do the portraits of Professors Snape and Dumbledore.’

By this point it was quite late and Harry discarded to leave Dudley’s letter for the following morning and retired to bed. Draco stayed up for another hour or so, writing to his mother.

Saturday morning began at about nine o’clock when the pair of them left for breakfast. It was quite a nice morning, though it was shaping up to be a fairly warm day. The station was already alive with activity. It was the first hunt of the year so the fifty or so students and faculty that made up the Hunt Club had left at first light and would not return until just before dinner. The combined Moore and McLoney clan, of whom there were fifteen, including two sets of twins, were playing a makeshift game of Quidditch with Matthew stout and Dominic Swift standing in for the three first years, who were umpiring from the ground. The three youngest were under no illusion that they were doing anything but watching but they didn’t mind.

After breakfast they parted company for a while, Draco to finish his letter to his mother in his study and Harry to read Dudley’s letter in the shade by a, currently dry, creek bed.

Harry had lost himself in his thoughts after reading Dudley’s letter and he was mildly startled when Eden Woods, if he remembered correctly, a fourth year who was very talented, and her Beagle, who was called Peter, dropped down beside him.

‘Penny for your thoughts Harry?’

‘Oh, it’s nothing Eden, just a letter from home is all. How about you? You look troubled.’

Eden, thought for a second. Then looked around to make sure they were alone.

‘There’s this person I like and they’re amazing. I think I might even love them, but they don’t know I exist.’

Harry was quite familiar with both sides of this predicament, and he told her so. He had not failed to notice her, very deliberate, omission of gender specific pronouns. He was quite familiar with that predicament as well. He left that for the moment.

‘Tell me about them.’ And she did. Harry learned that she had met this person at the Parselmouth society in her first year, the other person had been a little older and the two of them had been little more than casual acquaintances. This had not bothered her until the end of second year, when she found that at some point she had fallen for them.

‘Tell me Eden, is this person a girl?’ he asked gently. After a moment she nodded.

‘How did you know?’

‘You couldn’t bring yourself to lie and refer to her in the masculine.’

‘Ah. What do I do, do I tell her?’

‘Is she single?’

‘I think so, but she’s a private person and I don’t pay any attention to gossip, so I could be wrong.’

‘I say tell her, if she feels the same, she feels the same, if she doesn’t then you’ll know.’ She thanked him and left. Sometime later Draco found him.

‘Hi Harry, you’ve been scarce today.’

‘I read that letter from Dudley this morning. Do you remember Susan Bones?’

‘Susan Bones, vaguely, she was a Hufelpuff from our year wasn’t she?’

‘Yea, she was. She and Dudley started dating after the war. He asked her to marry him last week. You know what that means don’t you?’

‘No, What?’

‘Hermione and Ron are married. Neville Longbottom is getting engaged to Hannah Abbott. Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas are as good as married, all they need is the piece of paper. Parvatti Patil is engaged to Harper Bulstrode, Millicent’s younger brother from the year below us. Daphne Greengrass is getting married to Anthony Goldstein. Millicent and Vincent Crabbe are married. Tracey Davis is engaged to Theodore Nott. Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini are married. Justin Finch-Fletchley is getting married to Megan Jones. Wayne Hopkins is engaged to Leanne Heard. Ernie Macmillan and Kellah Jones are getting married. So are Terry Boot and Morag MacDougal. Michael Corner is engaged to Mandy Brocklehurst. Stephen Cornfoot and Sue Li are engaged. Kevin Entwhistle and Fay Dunbar are getting married. And Padma Patil lives with Rionach O'Neal from our year. That only leaves us and Lisa Terpin. Witch realistically just leaves us.’

‘Why’s that? Lisa Terpin was the best looking girl in our year, apart from the Patil twins, she could have had her pick of just about anyone she wanted.’

‘She did. Do you remember Lavender Brown?’

‘Really?’ he said, surprised.

‘I don’t know if she’ll ever get over losing Lavender. She was the love of her life, and for a while she was all she had. I hope she can move on someday, she hasn’t had an easy life Lisa.’

‘Really, how so?’

‘I didn’t know her all that well, mainly through Lavender. But when she came out in fourth year her parents disowned her. She used to spend the summer with Lavender and her family. They were the perfect couple, never argued, and always kissed each other goodnight.’

‘I didn’t know about them, I thought I was the only one in our year.’ He hadn’t meant to say this aloud and was surprised to hear himself say it.

‘Only one what Dragon?’ It was of course too much to ask on Draco’s part for Harry not to hear it. Draco was quite happy with the way their friendship was progressing and he was torn between not wanting to lie to him and not wanting to tell him. The former won out.

‘The only one in our year who isn’t entirely straight.’

‘Nope, there were about eight of us.’

‘Eight, wait, us?

‘Yes us: one Dean, two Seamus, three Lavender, four Lisa, five Padma, six Rionach, seven you and me eight.’

‘You know, I had no Idea.’

‘That was kind of the point. Only thing people like more than a good bit of gossip is a good bit of gossip about me. If a certain reporter who shall remain nameless ever found out I’d be having a sordid affair with Kingsley Shacklebolt. Not to mention the amount of people throwing themselves at me would about double.’

‘Did you ever take any of them up on it?’

‘Who, the infatuated fans? Just Ginny Weasley but that was more of a cover than anything.’

‘Did she know?’

‘Not at first but when she started getting serious I told her.’

‘How’d she take it?’

‘Better than Ron.’

‘Oh?’

He dragged me down to the hospital wing because he thought that you’d cursed me or something. Then he shouted for half an hour about how I loved Ginny. Then he went all quiet and muttered to himself for the rest of the night.’

‘You’re kidding! And Granger?’

‘I think Hermione already knew because she just gave me a knowing look and handed Lavender a Galion.’

‘If she already knew, how come she lost a Galion?

‘She didn’t. Apparently there was a betting pool and she was custodian. Most of our year and about half of Gryffindor Tower were in on it but Ron and Hermione weren’t allowed. Most of them were down for straight, evidently a couple were down for bisexual but it was only Lavender and Lisa who got it right. I bet there was on about you too.’

‘You think?’

‘The ‘Slytherin Ice Prince’ of course there was.’

‘Is there something else on your mind Harry? You seem a bit off.’

‘Lavender’s birthday is tomorrow, I forgot until I got that letter from Dudley and Susan. I’ll have to send Shylock back with a letter to her parents and Lisa. Shylock’s not going to be happy, he only got back last night. He won’t be pleased with me.’

‘You can send them with Crichton if you like. He’s going there anyway, I was going to send him in the morning but I can just as easily send him tonight,’

‘Thanks Dragon, I’ll write them up this afternoon.’

‘Say hello from me. Can I ask your advice?’

‘Sure.’

‘I’ve got this first year, I don’t know if I told you about her or not. Hanna Briggs, know her?’

‘I think I’ve met her at one point, but she’s in my first class on Monday morning so I haven’t taught her yet. What about her.’

‘She keeps apologising for being Muggle-Born.’

‘As an excuse for not being able to do things?’

‘No, she’s brilliant. She’s the one I told you about Monday night. Her technique’s flawless.’

‘Did you tell her that?’

‘Twice.’

‘Introduce her to Hermione when she comes, until then tell her that top of our class was Muggle-Born, and don’t forget to mention that she kicked you arse at potions. Though not in those words, her parents won’t be happy with you if you do.’ It was at about this point that a dark and peculiar shaped shadow passed over them. They looked up to see a Pearly white dragon that must have been ten metres in length.

‘Is that a Dragon?’ Draco said, slightly awestruck and just as startled. They put it out of their minds after watching it disappear into the clouds.

Later that day, after sending Crichton, Draco’s Wedge Tailed eagle, with letters to Narcrissa Malfoy, Lavender’s family and Lisa Terpin, Harry was instructing Draco in the finer points of the Full body bind counter curse. As it turned out whomever had taught it to him had neglected to mention the necessity of the flick of the wrist between one of the sweeps and the following figure eight. By the time they had figured this out and corrected it so that Draco could cast the spell flawlessly, as he could almost every other spell, it was almost dinner time. The Hunt club horn could be heard in the distance signifying their return. The Hunt Master, as they had found out at breakfast that morning, in a feat of deductive reasoning, was Jessica Hook, the Care of Creatures teacher.

‘Come for a fly before dinner Harry?’

‘Sure, why not.’

The sun was setting as they took flight. It was a spectacular sight. The sunsets at the station were spectacular. At the station, it seemed, nothing happened by half. While they flew they were joined by their seekers, Joel and Jayne, who had climbed the couple of meters from where Zachary and another cousin, Layla Moore, were teaching the youngest cousins, Indiana and James, to fly. Harry, Draco, Jayne and Joel climbed a little higher.

‘So, who won Quidditch this morning?’ Harry asked.

‘The Girls.’ Joel replied.

‘Who’s Ides was that?’ Draco asked.

‘Joel’s. We have too many seekers and he’s the only boy so the only time he’s guaranteed a seeker position is when we do a battle of the sexes.’

‘Oh shut up Jayne. She does this, when she wins, she gloats.’ Said a vaguely annoyed Joel.

‘Do you do it to her?’ Draco asked.

‘Perhaps’ he replied slightly sheepishly.

‘Yes.’ She replied at the same time.

Harry and Draco shared a look. They dropped down to the level where the others were flying around. Indiana and James seemed to have mastered the basics. They had learned in their conversation with the twins that the youngest of their seven uncles had been a sixth year the year The eldest of their cousins, who had finished five years earlier, had started and the tradition of the first weekend flying lesson had continued. It was getting close to dinnertime so the group headed for the Dining hall chatting.

On Sunday morning they joined a game of social Quidditch. It had taken some convincing on the part of the students and about four other staff with whom they were playing to get them to play seeker. Joel, Jayne, Kate and Roxanne, the stations usual seekers were conspicuously absent from the game. It was of course not unusual for some of them to be absent, but this was the first time in almost two years that all four of them were absent from the gathering. It would be discovered later that the twins had headed to Ballarat, a part Muggle, part wizarding town not far away for supplies, predominantly sweets. While the other two had gone horse riding with a group of friends. The rest of the McLoney and Moore clan were also notably scarce doing various things. Harry and Draco had slid back into the role of seeker with ease, though it had been some time. Score was never properly kept in these games, though Draco had caught the snitch and his team had been declared the victor.  As this was happening Kate McLoney came speeding to them on her horse, a four year old Brumby, who must have had some racing horse in her somewhere, coming to a halt rather abruptly very near to them.

‘We got ourselves an Opal-eye out beyond the ridge, she’s branded.’ The Opel-eye, which coincidentally had flown over Harry and Draco the previous afternoon, was fairly young and had made the trans-Tasman trip from a reserve in its native New Zealand. A reserve witch, quite by chance was run by Charlie Weasley, though none of them are aware of this quite yet. They become aware of this after a feat of synchronised flying from Harry and Draco to identify the brand residing on the creature’s backside. Harry then sent his stag Patronus to the reserve, where it found Charlie, who apparated with another man to just outside the wards surrounding the school where they were met by Harry who flew in with them.

‘Hiya Harry, this is my fiancé David Emerson, David, Harry Potter, he’s a friend of Ron’s. What have you got for us?’

‘Opal-eye with your brand. Hasn’t caused any trouble. A group of students found it while they were out riding earlier this morning. Before we get there, I should tell you, Draco Malfoy is a teacher here, none of the student’s know we were on opposite sides in the war and we’d like to keep it that way. I’ll explain later.’

‘Of course. Riding what exactly?’

‘Horses.’ At Charlie’s slightly surprised look Harry continued. ‘Things are different here, your kind of place I think. Anyway, I thought you were in Romania.’

‘I was until a year or so ago, then I got offered this job.’ Unnoticed until this point by the two seekers David had fallen behind them somewhat. They doubled back to him.

‘Sorry dear.’ Charlie said.

‘I s’pose I could forgive you. This once.’ David replied in jest. He had a distinct New Zealand accent.

They continued the rest of the way, Charlie relaying the information Harry had given him to David. They were not far from Draco, Richard and the dragon when something occurred to Harry.

‘Charlie, have you told Ron?’

‘What, that I’m engaged? Not yet, I wanted to wait to tell him in person when I see him at Christmas.’

‘Don’t be surprised if he freaks out a bit. He did when I came out to him, he was fine by next morning. Freaking out is how he deals with stress.’

‘I bet there was some money lost over that.’

‘Two girls from our year won a Galion each over it yea.’

They soon arrived at the field where the dragon was, quite placidly for a dragon, waiting with Draco and Richard. Harry made introductions.

‘Draco Malfoy Potions master, Richard Tiller Principal. Charlie Weasley, David Emerson, they run the reserve.’ Greetings were then exchanged. Before Charlie went to assess the dragon.

‘He’ll keep for the rest of the day. Would you mind if we stayed for the afternoon Harry here’s got me intrigued?’ Charlie said after making his assessment of the creature.

‘By all means, stay as long as you like.’ Richard answered cheerily.

‘‘is it just me, or is everyone a bit too relaxed about the fact that there’s a stray dragon on the school grounds?’ Draco said, looking slightly worried.

‘Opel-eyes are mostly harmless, to humans at least, not so much sheep and they’ll eat the odd kangaroo but they only ever hunt for food.’ David reassured him.

‘So Harry,’ said Charlie slinging an arm around Harry’s neck, ‘give us the grand tour?’

Harry agreed, they set off on brooms beginning with the extensive grounds witch covered nearly a hundred hectares and ending shortly before dinner just outside the dining hall. The students and faculty had started to arrive for dinner a short while before and the tables were already sparsely occupied.

 It was upon seeing this that Charlie remarked. ‘Alright, I’m impressed.’

They joined The Three Musketeers, Joel and Jayne. Harry introducing them.

‘Charlie Weasley, David Emerson this is: Joel, Jayne and Zachary McLoney, Matthew Stout, Dominic Swift and Declan Garrett.’ They greeted each other.

‘What brings you two here?’ Said Jayne.

‘We run a dragon reserve over in New Zealand. One of our Opal-eyes found her way here, we came to collect her.’ David replied.

‘Oh, the one Kate and Roxanne found.’ Jayne said.

‘D’you always eat with the teachers here or just on weekends?’ Charlie asked fascinated.

‘We have a formal dinner every other Friday and on special occasions but other than that yea, we eat together.’ Matthew replied.

Dinner ended and Charlie and David left with the dragon. Harry and Draco were in their living room with their, for once present, roommate Andrew Horgan, a short man with pointed features and almost no hair, who taught History and had his nose buried in a book. They were sitting, once again, with tea, talking.

‘Charlie seemed nice.’ Draco remarked. ‘He’s related to Ron how exactly?’

‘He’s his older brother.’

‘There are more of them?’

‘Yea, Bill’s oldest, then Charlie, then Percy, then the Twins, then Ron, then Ginny.’

‘Seven? They were eager.’

‘Don’t make me think about Molly and Arthur like that, not an image I want in my head.’

‘Sorry. I think Jessica might have fallen for me. And it’s awkward because she’s nice and I like her, but she’s a she and therefore. Really not my type.’

‘You do seem to have that effect on people, certainly on me.’ As soon as it came out of Harry’s mouth He clapped his hands over his mouth, hoping he hadn’t said the last part aloud. What Draco said next shattered that fantasy.

‘You didn’t mean to say that did you? I’ll tell you what, we can either forget you said it or, and I prefer this one, I could tell you that I think I’ve fallen for you too. Your choice.’ At this point, Andrew retreated into his own bedroom.

Harry thought, or rather pretended to think, for a moment, ‘I think I prefer the last one.’

‘I like the way you think.’ And thus began a long discussion.


	6. Another Beginning

Over the next week very little changed between them, they went about the same routine, save for the occasional stolen kiss between classes, and by Friday they had yet to go on an actual date. Harry decided to remedy this by asking Draco to dinner in Ballarat. There were a number of nice restaurants in the town and they had both independently resolved to take the other to all of them before the year was out. The first they were going to try was a steakhouse by the lake. It wasn’t the nicest place in town but according to Matthew and Dominic it had the nicest view.

Friday night came and there was no shortage of nerves between them. They had both decided on a shirt and tie. Draco a short sleeved purple shirt with a silver tie. Harry a short sleaved Emerald shirt with a black tie. Harry took Draco’s hand as they walked from the alley they had aperated to a short distance from the restaurant. They had a nice night and had stayed out until well after midnight. When they got home they kissed goodnight. They had kissed before but this time seemed somehow different.

Neither were quite sure when the station had become home to them. They had both only ever expected to feel that particular connection to the castle. It had perhaps come in the evenings high in the sky together. Perhaps it had come in those relaxed and comfortable mealtimes, where conversation was rampant and food was good. It could have come in those evenings turned mornings spent talking in their lounge room. Or perhaps it had happened on that first day a friendship that had been so long coming had finally begun with a handshake once denied.

* * *

 

The next day was Quiddich try outs. The teams on the station, unlike those at the castle had ten positions. A seeker, a keeper, a pair of beaters, three chasers, and three in reserve. They both fount the addition of the latter quite practical. For one thing it meant that they had someone to play against in practices. They were told that rule of thumb for this was to have a keeper, a chaser and a seeker. Harry and Draco both adapted this to a keeper and two opposing chasers while they played an opposing seeker, or some variation thereupon.

Draco’s Hufflepuff team consisted of Joel McLoney in Seeker. Mark Kirk, a seventh year tenor in Keeper. Tristin Aldred, a fifth year whose mother had been a professional Keeper with the Wollongong Warriors for a brief time, and Lucy Benton, a third year with two dads, were the beaters. The chasers were Ken Archer, a muscular seventh year and a pair of sixth years, Paul Harris, a baritone, and Lauren Hastings who was a gifted sharp shooter. In reserve were Callan Langdon, a third year Cellist, Emily Lake, who had a rare gift for the English language, and Erin Herrod, a fourth year with an aptitude for Shakespearian acting.

Harry’s Ravenclaws consisted of Jayne McLoney in Seeker. Hamish Jenkins, a fourth year Violinist, in Keeper. A pair of fifth years, Caleb Greenway, an archer, and Rachel Boxer, a hunt rider. His Chasers were Lillian Archer, a bookish first year whose older brother was on the Huffelpuff team, Rupert Blake, a seventh year with a love for classical literature, and Benjamin Mosby, a third year trickster. In reserve, a pair of fourth year fencers Ben Dodge and Matthew Powers, and a third year dancer, Connor Thompson.

He Tryouts had taken most of the day and they were only narrowly done before dinner. As they had been in different paddocks all day Harry and Draco had not seen each other sense just after breakfast that morning. They went together to the dining hall and were waved over by The Three Musketeers

After dinner in their lounge room they sat together making lesson plans for the next week, occasionally asking the other for advice. After a bit over three hours of this they had simultaneously abandoned it. They had then talked on the couch for a time, Draco elegantly stretched out with his head in Harrys lap. Almost reluctantly after some time, they parted company and retired to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a short chapter today but the next bit needs to be in a separate chapter to this one because of a big time jump so sorry about that.


	7. Easter

The year went on and Easter and thus the end of term rolled around. Harry and Draco had settled into a solid routine by this point. Every morning they would fly to the dining hall together and after breakfast they would fly to their classrooms. Harry would often help Draco set up for his classes. Just as they had done in their first week, they often spent their respective afternoons off demonstrating in the other’s class. Alternate Friday nights to the formal dinners they would go on a date in Ballarat. Saturdays were often spent watching Quidditch and occasionally playing in the afternoon social matches. Sundays would occasionally mean a visit from Charlie and David who had taken to visiting at least once a month. Sunday would also mark letters being sent to England, primarily to Draco’s mother and the Weasleys. They would alternate between sending Crichton and Shylock.

The school was deserted over the holidays as not many students had stayed over the holidays. This gave Harry and Draco a good deal of free time. Time witch they would spend by the creek reading or flying over the station. On one occasion they had been taken by Richard and some other staff, Katlyn Moffatt, Head of The Humanities department, for one, bunny bashing at night. Bunny bashing was an often practiced activity in rural Australia, they were both aware of this as it happened on most weekends. They were not aware that the practice involved shooting rabbits and foxes with a rifle. Harry was aware of the basic principal of using a firearm but had never actually done so. Draco found the concept both fascinating and barbaric. Harry agreed that the premise of going out in the back of a ute in the dark to shoot things was rather barbaric. Richard assured them however that all they ever shot were rabbits and foxes, which are considered a pest due to their abundance. They had wound up having a great time, coming back with enough rabbits to feed the twelve people left on the station.

The pair of them spent Easter weekend in a hotel in Ballarat. There is a mock up gold rush town witch they visited for a day over Easter. They were quite refreshed when they returned late on Tuesday to the station and the rest of the holiday passed in much the same fashion.


	8. A Visit

Just over a month after Easter the visit Draco had been dreading came. Neville Longbottom arrived. He looked as though he did look as if he had not slept properly in a good while. Harry had met him just beyond the wards when he arrived early one Saturday afternoon,

‘Hi Neville, you look good.’

‘I look exhausted. There’s something different about you Harry. Teaching was a good move for you I think.’

‘Thanks, I like it. Before I forget none of the students know that Draco and I were on opposing sides in the war. We’d like to keep it that way.’

‘Sure. How’s he going with teaching by the way?’

‘Really well actually, better than I thought he would. The students love him. He grew up a lot after the war. He’s different. I think I love him Neville.’ Harry had not meant to say that last part.

‘Well the Weasley Twins won that bet.’

‘There was a betting pool? How much?’

‘Of course there was a betting pool, four galleons it ended up I think.’

‘Four? Blimey that’s a lot.’

‘Biggest one I ever went in on.’

‘How’s Hannah, did you ask her yet?’

‘She’s good. She said yes. I decided to retire from the Aurour office’

‘That’s fantastic, have you set a date?’

‘Not yet, we want you to be over so we were thinking sometime over Christmas if you’ll be around.’

‘I think so, we finish up for the year at the end of November so we’ll be back until the end of February. Wait till you see this place, it really is something else.’

By this time they had met Draco in their lounge.

‘Neville.’ Draco said slightly sheepishly offering a hand witch Neville readily took.

‘Draco.’ There was a short pause. ‘So, Harry tells me you’re quite the teacher, mind if I sit in on one of your classes?’

‘Please. How about Friday afternoon? I know Harry wants you to talk to all of his classes.’

‘Friday afternoon is good.’

It occurred to Harry that this Friday night was a formal dinner. ‘Did you bring a shirt and tie Neville?’ Harry asked after a moment.

‘I don’t think so, why?’

‘Friday night’s a formal dinner. I forgot to tell you in the last letter.’

‘That’s fine, I can just transfigure one.’

Neville and Draco got to know each other that afternoon. They found they had a lot to talk about. Neville was very like Harry, Draco found. Neville hadn’t quite believed Harry when he’d said that Draco had changed. He believed it after talking to him. The three of them walked together to the dining hall that evening. Neville was surprised at the seating arrangements. The three of them ended up eating with The Three Musketeers and the McLoney Twins. Neville had agreed whole heartedly that the station was far more practical than the castle and they had gotten him on side to convince McGonagall of this.

Harry relinquished his bed to Neville for the week and shared with Draco. Though they had yet to do anything more than cuddle, a term that Draco would deny his liking for to anyone but Harry, It was nice to wake up together and they both found that the nightmares that plagued them both still tended to stay away when they slept together, something they had only really done at the hotel in Ballarat.

Monday morning came and Harry’s first class were the first half of the first years.

‘We have a special guest with us this week. He’s someone Mr Malfoy and I went to school with and I don’t mind saying that he’s one of my personal heroes. He’s an Aurour over in England. I’m going to hand the floor to him now. This is Neville Longbottom.’ There was a polite applause.

‘Thanks Harry, like he said I’m Neville I’ll be around all week. And I must say, I do like the way things are run around here. First off, does anyone have any questions?’

About half the class raised their hands and the lesson began. All of Harry’s lessons for the week happened this way and the students were transfixed. Neville proved himself to be an apt teacher. The students, all knowing that neither Harry nor Draco talked about the war all that much, didn’t ask too many questions of Neville about the war. Though he did happily tell the story of him standing up to Voldemort after Harry s supposed death, which was the only story he ever told about the war. He had learned quite quickly that people generally stopped asking after they’d been told something.

Friday afternoon came and both Neville and Harry were sitting in on Draco’s first year class. Neville was as impressed as Harry had been at Draco’s teaching abilities.

‘Now class, you’ll notice that we have an audience this afternoon. Mr Potter being here is nothing new I know but another one of our classmates is here as well. I’m sure you’ve all met Neville sometime this week. He’s definitely one of my biggest heroes. The potion we’re making today is on page seventy three of your books.’

As the students were busy making their potions and Draco was, as usual roaming the room observing and correcting.

‘He really is a good at this.’ Neville said to Harry quietly.

‘Yea he is.’ Harry said moving over to a student who was stirring his cauldron too fast and in the wrong direction. ‘Slower Tim and in the other direction.’ He corrected. He turned back to Neville. ‘I’ll have to talk to him, he’s been distracted all week.’

The day ended uneventfully and soon it was dinner time. Neville had not in fact brought a shirt and tie so he had borrowed one of Harry’s black ties and transfigured one of his t-shirts into a short sleeved crimson shirt. He sat at the end of the staff table immediately to Harry’s right. The principal made an announcement about the first bonfire of the year and the beginning of the new Quidditch season a fortnight later. The show choir did a set of songs. They were very good, Harry and Draco had never formally heard them before, though they had managed to catch a rehearsal or two. It was a large group, almost forty. Neville left the following afternoon after joining in with social Quidditch witch they won against a team of students.

After he left and Draco was alone with Harry, Draco asked him. ‘How do you think it went?’

‘I thought it went well. Neville really likes you.’

‘You think so?’

‘You’re a likable guy Dragon. It takes a fair bit for Neville to not be able to forgive someone.’

‘I thought I, of all people, would qualify.’

‘No, you just had some ground to make up is all.’ Draco did require further assurance of this.

The weekend progressed as it usually did after that. On Sunday afternoon Harry happened to run into Timothy Radford, the distracted first year from Draco’s potions class, by the creek with his Blue Healer, Corracticus.

‘How are you Tim? You’ve seemed distracted lately.’ Harry asked, lowering himself down beside him.

‘It’s nothing.’ Well that screamed half-truth. ‘I got a letter from my parents on Tuesday saying that I wasn’t welcome home for the holidays and that I should find somewhere to stay over the summer.’

‘May I ask why?’

‘I don’t know, they just said ‘You know why.’ Except I don’t.’

‘Would you like me to go and talk to them? They’re in Perth aren’t they?’

‘Yes please.’

Harry, armed with this information and a little more, Aperated to Perth, a sensation he still detested greatly but the trip was well over three thousand kilometres and there was no other way to get there and back before Monday morning. He eventually found the house in the wizarding part of Perth. It was a nice house, perhaps a little too large for three people, more suited to a family of five or six, but not so much so as to be conspicuous. The door was answered by Charlie Radford, Timothy’s father who was a well-built man who carried some extra weight around the middle. He was clearly the kind of man who had never been denied a right in his life. The sort of person Harry generally disliked.

‘Mr Radford, I’m Harry Potter, I teach at Hogwarts Station, I wonder if I could come in.’

‘S’pose can I get you a drink?’ He said showing him in.

‘No thank you. Is your wife home? I was hoping to have a word with you both.’

He nodded, ‘Jen!’ he shouted. Jennifer Radford, who was another person with the look of somebody who had never been denied a right in her life, came down the stairs and the three of them sat in the living room.

‘Mr Radford, Mrs Radford, I heard something disturbing from Timothy earlier today. He told me that you sent him a letter on Tuesday telling him not to come home again. When I asked him why he said he had no idea. Would you enlighten me so that I can enlighten him?’

‘We send him to a fancy School, best in Australia and he befriends one of ‘them’ I don’t know what that boy thinks he’s doing.’ By ‘them’ Mr Radford was referring to the Aboriginal population of the county, of which about half the school is comprised. The particular individual to witch he is referring in this instance is Mason Cooper, Timothy’s classmate, fellow Gryffindor and best friend.

‘You are referring to Mason Cooper I presume. Purely out of interest, where did the two of you go to school?,

‘We were both home schooled then we did a year at the WA finishing academy of the Magical Arts.’ Harry had heard from the other teachers about the state finishing academies. They were day schools in the capital cities used precisely for this purpose. Students only ever attended for one year. They had only been established in the early twentieth century and had a demographic of mostly upper middle class white Anglo-Saxons of at least half blood status. They were notorious for the narrow mindedness of a number of their graduates and their unwritten ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ bullying policies. The academies also taught solely magical subjects. This explained a lot.

‘At the station we value diversity. I’m sure you were aware of that when you sent your son to us. Let me tell you about your son. He is a sweet kid, not a single one of his teachers have had any trouble with him. He is brilliant, second in his year. He gets on with all the students. I can’t say anything about his practical abilities outside Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions but he is incredibly gifted at those.’

‘If you’ve come here to convince us to take him back you can leave right now.’

‘Fair enough. Good afternoon.’ With that he left, seething.

He found Tim in the same place he had left him with Mason.

‘Mason, could you give us a minute?’ Mason nodded and bid them both goodbye. Once he had left Harry turned to Tim. ‘I spoke to your parents.’ He began.

‘And?’

‘And they don’t approve of your being friends with Mason.’

‘That’s what this is about? I knew they were a bit racist but I didn’t think it went that far. What do I do now?’

‘You have a couple of options. We can make them take you back over the summer holidays and you can stay here until then; alternatively we can put you in a program that the school runs whereby you are officially placed under the guardianship of the school. Basically nothing changes. You either stay here or with friends over the holidays and the school pays for everything you need; or, and I strongly advise against this one, you can stop spending time with Mason. You don’t have to decide right now.’

‘What would you do?’

‘Me, I’d go with the second option. Between you and me, I know what it’s like to be in a household that doesn’t want you, and it’s no place to be. I’m sure Mason’s family would be happy to have you, along with pretty much any of the families in your year and most of the teachers. It all depends weather you think they’ll come around or not.’

‘I’d like to think they will and I’d like to give them the chance but, realistically I don’t think they will, not by the Christmas holidays.’

It was at this point that Mason returned. ‘I’ll leave you to think about it, let me know when you’ve made a decision. You two should talk about it.’

Once he was gone Mason looked at Tim quizzically.

‘What was that about?’

‘I got a letter from my parents the other day. They basically told me that I wasn’t welcome home again and that I should find somewhere else to stay over the summer holidays and that I knew why. Harry went and saw them today and they told him that it was because I was friends with you and they weren’t very nice about it. I knew they wouldn’t be overly pleased but I didn’t think they would go that far.’

‘Hey, I’m sorry mate.’

‘It’s ok, it’s their problem, not yours. Apparently the school has a contingency plan for this kind of thing. Basically they can make them take me back over the Christmas holidays, but that won’t be pleasant for anyone. Another option is for the school to have guardianship over me and I just stay with someone over the summer. The last option is for me to stop hanging out with you, but I like that even less than the first one.’

‘I’d understand if you did you know, they are your family.’

‘Yea, and you’re my best mate, I’d never do that to you, I don’t think I could.’

‘Tell you what, whatever you decide, come up to Broome with me next holidays stay with my family. I think you’ll like them.’

‘We’ll do it, you’ll have to write your parents and make sure it’s ok though.’

‘What do you think you’re going to do? In the long term I mean.’

‘I think I’ll go with the change of guardianship. It sounds kind of cool.’

* * *

 

When Harry found Draco in his potions classroom with Zachary McLoney, they were brewing something or other for the hospital wing. When Draco looked up to see him Harry looked stressed, he turned to Zachary.

‘Can you handle this for a minute?’

‘Course, go.’

Draco took Harry to one side, not wanting to be overheard, even by Zachary whom he trusted implicitly.

‘It didn’t go too well, I take it.’ He said, grazing the back of his hand comfortingly down Harry’s cheek.

‘In a word, no. do you know what it was all about? Mason Cooper. They kicked their eleven year old out of the house because his best friend has a different coloured skin than they do.’ Harry was visibly seething now. Draco took both Harry’s hands in his, which seemed to calm him a little. ‘I mean, and you know I love you Dragon but, not even you sank that low.’

‘What’s he thinking of doing.’

‘He’s discussing it with Mason but I think he’s leaning towards the change of guardianship option.’

‘I know it seems ridiculous but I hope he does chose that option over the others, it’s what I would have chosen.’

‘Me too. Sorry, just needed to vent a bit, I’ll let you get back to your potion. Anything interesting?’

‘No, just some stuff for the hospital wing. I’ll see you later?’

‘Yea, love you.’ He said kissing him lightly on the cheek. He left bidding Zachary goodbye.

‘How much of that did you hear?’ Draco asked after Harry left.

‘All of it, he was shouting a bit. But I didn’t hear anything.’

‘Yea, he does that a bit, hell’ava situation.’

‘Yea. Is this Timothy Radford?’

‘Yea, such a sweet kid. I just can’t fathom how he was spawned of those people.’

‘That’s a bit harsh.’

‘Is it, and this is for your ears only, but, I had a father like that, and at eleven, I was just like him, wanted it that way too. It took me a long time to come out of it. Longer than I care to admit.’

Their conversation drifted to other things and they finished a bit over two hours later. They had missed lunch entirely without noticing. They parted company Zachary to find his brother, Thomas, whom he had promised to go riding with that afternoon and Draco to find Harry, who was no doubt still seething. He found him in the air above the stables.

‘Hey Dragon.’ He said in a tone that did not mirror his mood in the slightest. It had taken Draco by surprise the first time this had happened. Harry had an unparalleled ability to not direct his moods towards the wrong people, no doubt it came in some way from growing up in the public eye as Harry had done. It meant of course that Harry could be perfectly pleasant, even while seething so visibly. It made Draco’s head spin sometimes. They decided to fly out over the vast expanse of the station witch was mostly deserted. They passed over Zachary and Thomas riding their brumby’s about an hour later.

‘Missed you at lunch Dragon.’ Harry was a good deal calmer now.

‘Zach and I got to talking and before we knew it, it was two o’clock.’

‘Shall we go and listen to the show choir rehearse?’

‘Sounds like an Idea.’

The show choir, who called themselves ‘The Preforming Sorcerers’ and were quite good, consisted of about half of the McLoneys and an assortment of other students. Harry and Draco had been surprised at the amount of crossover between the show choir and the Quidditch teams, about sixteen in total. They sounded fantastic. Their number consisted of a decent representation from almost every vocal range, including a trio of base baritones and a pair of falsettos. This impressed the judges of their various competitions because they could create a selection of complex harmonies, making them the envy of the other competitors. They were practicing an original song, written by Matthew Stout, who was quite gifted with show tunes. He, along with Dominic Swift and Jessica Combes, was writing a musical for The Preforming Sorcerers for the end of year show that had become a tradition.


	9. Quiddich

Over the next month and a half there were several developments on the station. The first was that the majority of the students and faculty now knew about Harry and Draco’s relationship, they had never been hiding it but they had only realty told a handful of people, including The McLoney Twins, Zachary, and the majority of the staff. The second development involved Timothy Radford, who had decided to have guardianship over him turned over to the school, becoming one of seventeen. The third was the beginning of the Patronus tutelage, which took place between four and five on weeknights. This process was going rather well and between Harry and Draco, about half the seventh years had now at least partially mastered it. A formal dance had also been announced, which coincidentally fell at the same time as a visit from Dean and Seamus witch had also been arranged. In this time The Quidditch season had also begun with weekly matches. The first of these was between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, an exciting and quite high scoring game to begin the season, Jayne McLoney catching the snitch over her cousin Roxanne Moore in the end winning the game 300 to 200. The second game was between Hufelpuff and Gryffindor, a fairly short game, lasting just less than an hour Joel narrowly catching the snitch over his younger cousin Kate, who had spotted it first. The third game was between Gryffindor and Slytherin witch had been won narrowly by Gryffindor with a score of 450 to 430 even though Roxanne had been the one to catch the snitch. The game had lasted the better part of six hours and the teams had made full use of their reserves. The game ending when the illusive snitch was spotted and promptly caught by Kate.

The next game of the season was the long awaited Ravenclaw Hufelpuff match. There was something in the air that morning. The whole school was in a good mood. One of the many points that the station seemed to get, and that conversely the castle had missed entirely was team rivalries. On the station team rivalries were taken extremely seriously, until the game was over when they would cease to exist altogether. On the station they seemed to know when things were all in fun and nobody took anything too seriously, least of all themselves.

Quidditch matches on the station began at half past ten on a Saturday morning. There would often be entertainment from The Preforming Sorcerers or the band to begin with. Today they began with two of the numbers from the latest Stout, Swift and Combes musical witch went down rather well. Then the players would come out onto the field two by two. The reserves would come out first. Ben Dodge of Ravenclaw and Erin Herrod of Hufelpuff came out first; followed by Matthew Powers of Ravenclaw and Emily Lake of Hufelpuff; followed by Connor Thompson of Ravenclaw and Callan Langdon of Hufelpuff. The chasers would follow. Lillian Archer of Ravenclaw and her older brother Ken Archer of Hufelpuff; followed by Rupert Blake of Ravenclaw and Paul Harris of Hufelpuff; then by Benjamin Mosby of Ravenclaw and Lauren Hastings of Hufelpuff. They would then be followed by the beaters. Caleb Greenway of Ravenclaw and Tristan Aldred of Hufelpuff; then Rachel Boxer of Ravenclaw and Tristan’s third year cousin Lucy Benton of Hufelpuff. They would be followed by the keepers, Hamish Jenkins of Ravenclaw and Mark Kirk of Hufelpuff. Then the seekers, Jayne and Joel then by, Harry and Draco, and finally by the umpire, who for this particular match was Richard Tiller. The players would then circle the field before shaking hands and getting into position. The coaches would then call the coin toss and shake hands before sitting in the stands, usually apart but Harry and Draco would always sit together, which didn’t change today. The game would begin with a roar from the crowd.

Of all four teams the school had, these were the most evenly matched and if parents would come to see any game they would almost always come to see the Ravenclaw and Hufelpuff matches. The sibling rivalry between The Archers and The McLoneys was only part of the appeal but definitely worth seeing. The game began, Lillian Archer scoring the first points, much to the annoyance and pride of her older brother. The game continued almost point for point for nearly two hours until Joel spotted the snitch. Witch was almost directly behind his sisters left ear. She saw him looking and turned her head to see and it was off, thus began a furious chase for the snitch in loop the loops and figure eights with abrupt ninety degree turns and more than one about face. In the end though it was Jayne, by a hair who caught it. At some point during all of this the quaffle had been dropped and the players were doing nothing but watching g the twins in the dance that they had oft preformed.

Lead by the twins, who soon had their arms around each other, the players hit the ground.

‘Next time Joeley.’ She said kissing him on the cheek.

The players all shook hands, as is the custom on the station and hugs and congratulations were exchanged. Harry and Draco stood up to join their teams and kissing each other on the cheek.

‘Congratulations Harry.’

‘Thanks Dragon. Did you see that catch though?’ He had almost shouted the last part and Jayne was looking slightly smug. ‘And that chase, I have no words!’ The twins shared a look.

‘I think we were impressive Jayne.’ Joel said in a conspiring tone.

‘I think you’re right.’ Jayne replied

‘Oh, he is.’ Draco interjected, joining them along with the rest of the McLoney clans.

Harry and Draco made the rounds to congratulate their teams. The next people they found were the Archers who were gathered on the pitch along with Lillian’s twin June who was a Slytherin and the rest of the chasers. Tristan and Lucy were sat together in the stands with the other beaters, Rachel and Caleb. The four of them had been served with particularly aggressive bludgers and had spent the majority of the match going from one end of the pitch to the other in an extremely erratic pattern. The four of them had found themselves darting around the entire match. By some miracle nobody had been hit. They had, in the end, taken a quadrant of the pitch each and kept the bludgers at bay. They found the keepers with a group of The Preforming Sorcerers discussing their next performance.

After doing their coach-ly and managerial duties they left the pitch on foot, a choice they rarely made. They slung an arm around each other and walked back to the main building discussing the match, each complimenting the other on their training skills.

After lunch the two of them found themselves marking essays, Draco from his fourth years and Harry from his second years. They were sitting cross-legged on Harry’s bed opposite each other, and as they were prone to doing read amusing bits aloud to one another. About twelve essays in Crichton arrived from England. They had sent him on Wednesday morning, rather than Sunday afternoon because Thursday had been Draco’s mother’s birthday so he had written her a long letter and sent her a gift. In the letter he had informed her of their relationship. Harry had written Molly, as well as Ron and Hermione, Dean and Seamus, Hagrid, and George Weasley. Crichton had come bearing replies from all of them. Deciding that it was as good of a time as any to take a break they put their marking aside and read their letters.

Draco’s mother had written to thank him for the gift he had sent and telling him she was happy for him regarding his relationship with Harry. She had also told him that, upon informing Lucius of the fact that he was dating Harry, he had been livid. She had written as an aside that it had been the most hilarious thing she had ever seen. Harry and Draco thought that this was probably true.

Harry had written a similar letter to molly and the rest. Molly had been thrilled, writing that she looked forward to meeting this new Draco and that they were both welcome at The Burrow anytime. She had also invited Draco and his mother to the Weasley family Christmas, reminding him that he would always be family. Harry told Draco this.

‘Do you think she’s just saying that?’ Draco asked slightly apprehensive.

‘I wouldn’t think so, I’m kind of the sixth son she never had. Besides, I think she feels a bit responsible for it just being the two of you, she did kill your aunt.’ It was perhaps the third time anything to do with the war had come up between them.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever understand that family.’ Draco mused.

‘Don’t try, I’ve been trying since I was eleven, it’s impossible. Part of their charm I s’pose.’

Ron and Hermione’s letter had been similar, though they had not invited them to Christmas and there were various unpleasantries scrawled in the margins. Hermione had expressed interest in meeting the new Draco when they visited. Ron had expressed doubt that there was a new Draco. Harry gave the letter to Draco to read.

‘Sounds about right.’ He said when he’d finished reading it.

Dean and Seamus, who unlike the others had already known about the relationship, expressed delight at the prospect of a ball while they were over and promised to pack their suits and dancing shoes. They also expressed great interest in the way things were run at the station.

George had expressed congratulations and thanks for his winnings.

‘Listen to this Dragon, P.S. Thanks for the four galleons, I owe you both a drink.’

‘Who’s that?’

‘George.’

Hagrid’s letter had said that he was sceptical about Draco’s new leaf but that he trusted Harry’s judgement.

‘Well Dragon, I think you got the seal of approval.’

‘I will admit that it went better than I thought it would.’

So, are you ever going to tell your friends?’

‘What friends? I’ll tell Blaise and Pansy at some stage I suppose. I don’t know, I just have very little in common with them anymore.’

Nothing more was said on the matter and they both returned to their marking. It had occurred to Harry that the only one Draco ever sent letters to back home was his mother. He didn’t press the issue but filed it away for future reference.


	10. A Visit Much Dreaded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In witch Ron and Hermionie come to visit and Ron nearly shoots himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be forewarned I'm a bit mean to Ron. Although I harbor no ill will towards him I don't actually like him very much.

The day Draco had been dreading arrived a bit over two months later. Hermione and Ron were visiting for the weekend. Draco, and also Harry, had the sinking feeling that the good fortune he had experienced with Harry, Neville and Charlie was merely cosmic compensation for the reception he was going to get from Ron Weasley. They were right.

Harry had met them upon their arrival on the Friday afternoon and Ron had promptly been obtuse.

‘You are kidding about this you and Malfoy thing right?’

‘Oh, for goodness sake Ron, You aren’t the same person you were at school, nor is Hermionie, nor am I. Is it really that hard to believe that Draco might have changed too?’

‘I’ll believe that when I see it.’ He said moodily, earning himself a sharp glance from Hermionie.

‘And Ron, none of the students know we were on opposing sides in the war, we would both like to keep it that way.’

‘Fine, but I’m doing it for you not Malfoy.’

‘And another thing, everyone uses first names here. So it’s Draco, not Malfoy.’

‘Fine, anything else?’

‘I think that’s it. Come with me, there’s something I want to show you.’ As it was only three in the afternoon there was plenty of time for them to see Draco in action. So Harry led them to the potions classroom after dropping their things off in his bedroom, which he was again relinquishing for his guests.

The three of them snuck into the back of the potions classroom. Hermione was impressed at the way Draco taught, He didn’t appear to have a favourite student and nor did he appear to favour any particular house. When he demonstrated things he was patent and the students seemed to be quite taken with him. Ron was still sceptical, but Harry had expected that. Draco had only looked in their direction once, he had acknowledged them with a smile and a nod and a couple of the students had turned around and waved. At one point Harry had gone to correct Mason’s stirring and Timothy, with whom he always shared a bench, had turned to him.

‘Why’s that man so grumpy?’ He asked quietly, referring to Ron.

‘Oh, he’s just a bit jetlagged, it’s about four in the morning for him.’ Harry replied returning to the back of the class. Hoping that Timothy wouldn’t catch the half-truth. If he did he said nothing of it.

‘Come on Ron, I’ll show you my classroom.’ Harry said half dragging Ron out the door by the elbow.

‘Mind if I stay Harry?’ Hermionie asked as they were leaving.

‘Sure.’

They left, leaving Hermione behind.

‘What are you playing at?’ Harry asked as soon as they were safely in the empty Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom under the protection of the permanent silencing charm that surrounded it and the majority of the other classrooms.

‘What did I do?’

‘I’m not going to be able to leave you alone with Draco for a second am I? I was hoping you could at least pretend to not hate him, for my sake. Things are different here Ron. He’s different. Will you at least try to get to know him before you start openly scowling?’

‘Why?’

‘Because I love him.’ He was almost seething now.

‘You really do don’t you?’

‘Yea, I do.’

‘I’ll try, but don’t expect us to be friends straight away.’

‘Thanks.’

A beat.

‘I’ve missed you mate.’

‘I’ve missed you too.’

‘So, why did you move all the way out here to the middle of nowhere in this bloody heat?’

‘This place, it’s something else. You haven’t seen it yet but it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Besides, here I’m not ‘The Boy Who Lived’ or the ‘chosen one’ or any of that I’m just Harry. Also, I find teaching suits me. You know all the seekers here are all in the same family.’

‘Really? Who’s playing Quidditch this week?’

‘Our teams are playing this week. Hufelpuff and Ravenclaw. Should be good, our seekers are twins.’

It was almost the end of the lesson so they went back to the potions room where Draco was letting his class out a few minutes early.

‘Alright, you can go. Have a nice weekend. Don’t knock Mr Potter, Mr Weasley or Miss Granger over on your way out.’

After they had all left Hermione said. ‘It’s Mrs Weasley now, but there’s loads of those so how about Hermione?’

‘Hermione it is.’ He offered her his had witch she took. ‘Ron.’ Ron, to his credit managed a smile, but it looked like it hurt, and after a moment took the hand offered him with only a slight grimace. Hermione and Harry shared a look that implied ‘this could turn into a long weekend’. Harry and Draco gave them the short version of the tour and a bit over an hour later they were sitting together in Harry and Draco’s Lounge room.

‘Hermione,’ Harry said quite suddenly with a meaningful look at Draco, ‘can I talk to you outside for a minute?’

‘Of course.’ They then left the room. ‘Do you think it’s wise leaving those two alone?’

‘They’ve both promised to act like grown-ups. Draco will, and Ron’ll do his best.’ He pulled her into a hug. ‘I’ve missed you Hermione.’

‘I’ve missed you too Harry. So tell me,’ she said taking hold of his arm, ‘How does it work with Draco?’

‘Hermione!’ he said, almost horrified. ‘Look I’ll tell you but it’s going to be really embarrassing and I’d really rather not.’

‘No, No, not like that, although… No… all your history, school, the war.’

‘Right, we don’t talk about that stuff. When we first got here we decided to call it water under the bridge. We both came here for a clean slate. The war’s been brought up, maybe five times since we got here. We talk about school every now and then.’

‘Fair enough. I can tell he makes you happy.’ A beat. ‘So, how did it start?’

‘That’s a funny story actually, it happened almost entirely by accident.’ He told her, sparing very few details, and they spent another half an hour or so catching up, before deciding to go and make sure that their respective spouses hadn’t killed each other.

* * *

 

After Hermione and Harry left there was a heavy silence. Ron was the one to break it.

‘Right, I don’t like you and you don’t like me, and realistically that is not going to change. But I promised that I’d try, so let me make one thing abundantly clear. If you hurt him, I will kill you.’

‘Ron, if there is one thing that has been made clear to me by every single person in existence it is that particular point. And I assure you that hurting Harry is the last thing on my mind. Don’t make him chose between us, because that is something I know I’ll lose and I don’t want to lose him. Believe me when I say this, I love him, I love him so much it scares me and if you make him chose, he’ll chose you and I don’t think I could bare that. Not just losing the lover, I could handle that, but losing the friend, I don’t think I could bare that.’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that. He loves you, about as much as you obviously love him. So, for his sake, and to avoid the wrath of our respective spouses, let’s try this.’ He tried valiantly to call the other man by his first name but failed. He offered his hand to Draco, who took it.

‘Alright I grew up in Wiltshire in a manor with just my mother and my father and I couldn’t wait to go to Hogwarts and get out of there. My middle name is Lucius after my father, who was conspicuously absent for most of my life. Severus Snape was my godfather, and a much better father to me than my own ever was, and he left me everything he owned. He is the one who killed Dumbledore, so that I didn’t have to. And, teaching, flying and Harry Potter are the three great joys in my life. That’s five things you didn’t know about me, your turn.’

‘I grew up in a rundown old house with my mum, dad five brothers and my sister, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. My middle name is Bilius. I’m terrified of spiders. Fred, George and Me liberated harry in a flying car one summer. And when I started at Hogwarts I wanted to be sorted into Hufelpuff, just so I wasn’t being compared to my family all the time. And five and a half I would have made a terrible Hufelpuff.’

‘How so?’

‘I left them, Harry and Hermione, when we were hunting Hurcruxes. I came back but it took me a while.’

The two of them got to talking and that was how, a very surprised, Harry and Herminie found them when they returned. It being a formal dinner week and quite late in the afternoon they all changed, the men into shirts and ties and Hermione in a black sleeveless dress that almost reached her ankles. They made their way to the dining hall. Ron and Hermione expressed their surprise at the mixed tables. The former much more vocally than his wife.

The principal made his announcements and soon dinner was in full swing. About halfway through the main course Draco turned to Hermione.

‘I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind talking to one of my students while you’re here.’

‘Of course not. What about?’

‘She keeps apologising for being Muggle-Born. She’s a lot like you actually, completely brilliant. I’ve told her that more than once but I think it might mean more coming from you.’

‘Sure. I must say Draco, I like you more and more every time I talk to you.’

‘I try, I’ve got a lot of ground to make up, especially with you.’

‘How about we just call it water under the bridge?’

‘Yea that sounds good, we’ll take that, frankly marvellous punch in third year and call it even.’ Hermione nearly choked on her chicken this drew some attention from the rest of the room. Had someone told her a year, or even six months ago that she would be joking with Draco Malfoy over dinner, in Australia, she would have sent them to have their head examined. As it was she was still not entirely certain that she was awake.

The Preforming Sorcerers did a couple of numbers before desert. Hermione and Ron were quite impressed and mildly surprised by this. Eventually they all turned in for the night.

Harry and Draco, pleasantly entwined in the latter’s bed were talking.

‘Well that went well Dragon.’

‘Actually it did. Ron was a bit frosty to begin with. Did you see the way he was scowling in my classroom?’

‘Tim pointed it out, yea. I took him to my classroom and we had words.’

‘I won’t ever make you chose.’ Draco said after a moment.

‘What?’

‘Between me and him, I won’t ever make you chose. He’s your best friend and I could never do that to you.’

‘Hermione is my best friend. Ron and I, we’re still close, but after the whole thing with Ginny. She was hurt and Ron and I had a fight. We were never quite the same after that.’

‘Does it bother you?’

‘Not as much as I thought it would. Hermione’s a good best friend I always had more in common with her anyway, she listens to me when I speak and gives my boyfriend a chance.’

‘Even when he doesn’t deserve it.’

‘You do deserve it Dragon. The difference between her and Ron is that she believed me when I told her you did. Her and me, we know what it’s like to be in the shadow of preconceived notions. We also know what it’s like to be prejudiced against, Ron has never known that, He’s a straight, pure-blood, white, Quidditch loving, male. He’s never been denied a right in his entire life and because of that he doesn’t know what it’s like. I think in a way that’s why he finds it so hard to forgive you, because you were the only person who has ever victimised him personally. For Hermione and me, you were one of many Fighting in the war was something he chose to do. He could have walked away from it at any point, and for a while he did, You Hermione and I, had no choice. Had we walked away at any point we’d have been hunted down and slaughtered. Just. Be patient with him Dragon, he is trying.’

‘I know he is, I’ve got a feeling that it’s going to be a long process though.’

‘What did you talk about while Hermione and I were gone?’

‘Oh, we managed to find some common ground after we stopped scowling at each other.’ Harry knew he was at least half joking about the scowling.

‘Told you, you were a lot alike.’

Their conversation drifted sleepily for a short while before they fell asleep.

* * *

 

Ron and Hermione were having a similar conversation in the next room.

‘Well, that could have gone worse, admittedly, it could have gone much better, but all things considered.’ Said Hermione, stretching.

‘It didn’t go too bad I s’pose. I still don’t see what Harry sees in the ferret.’

 This was the last straw. Hermione cast a silencing charm and she was off. ‘Ron, I am your wife so I can say this to you. But you have no idea what it is to be denied a single right. You and your family could have walked away from the war at any point and been safe, and may I remind you that you did at one point, But Harry and Draco and I. We couldn’t just decide that it was too much and take a break for a while. We would have been hunted down and killed. And I know that because you have never been victimised by the masses that it is harder for you to forgive the one person who ever singled you out. And I understand that, and Harry understands that, and I’m pretty sure that Draco understands that, but Ron, you need to try. Because maybe if you took the time to actually get to know him, you might find what Harry sees in him. And just maybe, if you put aside your prejudices against him for two seconds, you could actually come to like him. ‘

‘I kind of get why Harry sides with him, but you Hermione?’ He said in a brief fit of courage.

‘I side with him because, what you’re doing to him now, is no different to what he, and so many others, used to do to me. So, yes I side with him because when that has been done to you, you damn sure don’t stand by and watch it happen to anyone else.’

‘Draco Malfoy, has never been denied a thing in his life Hermione, everything he did he did because he chose to do it.’

‘You actually think that? Wake up Ronald! Voldemort threatened his life, and his mother’s life, you can’t honestly tell me you wouldn’t have made the exact same choice in that position.’

‘He threatened a lot of people’s mothers. It didn’t stop them.’

‘Now you’re being deliberately obtuse. Voldemort was in his house. He was living with them Ronald. Everything was coordinated from Malfoy Manor. You saw that, you were there.’

Ron, in his wisest move of the week, conceded. ‘I s’pose you’re right and I will try, I promise I’ll try.’

‘That is all I ask of you Husband.’

‘Yes Wife.’ Their conversation too drifted sleepily for a time.

* * *

 

The Quidditch season had by now entered its second round and it was again time for the Hufelpuff and Ravenclaw match. This again had the entire school seemingly in a good mood. Ron had even managed to greet Draco that morning without a trace of contempt.

Upon seeing this Hermione turned to Harry and remarked: ‘Is there something in the air around here?’

‘No, everyone seems to be in a good mood on the days when Hufelpuff and Ravenclaw play Quidditch.’ Harry shrugged. ‘No idea why it’s working on Ron though.’

They made their way to the dining hall a little while later. Quite by chance they ran into Hannah Briggs just outside the main building. Draco called to her and she approached them.

‘Hello.’ She said, not quite certain about Ron and Hermionie.

‘Hannah, this is Hermione, she’s the one I told you about.’ Draco told her.

‘Oh, hello. Are you really better at potions than Draco?’ It had taken both Hermione and Ron by surprise that she had referred to Draco by his first name. Though Zachary had done so when they had run into them the previous night.

‘I used to be, I’m not sure about now.’

‘And everything else?’

‘I never quite got the hang of Quidditch but most things, yes.’ She decided that there was no point in being overly modest as Draco had obviously told her these things.

They continued to talk for a short while, and then went inside. Hermione and Ron were also surprised to find the head table deserted and several of the teachers sitting amongst the students. Hermione had gone with Hannah to sit with her friends. While Harry, Ron and Draco had joined The Three Musketeers and Jayne and Joel as well as a smattering of the McLoney clan. Harry made introductions and everybody greeted everybody else. A conversation about Quidditch and other things ensued, carried mostly by the twins and Ron. Sometime during the conversation Draco had excused himself to go check on, and if need be rescue, Hermione who was entertaining about half a table with the story of the detention She had been on with Draco, Ron, Neville, Harry and Hagrid in their first year over the Norbert incident, as it had become known in certain circles, Draco would have to remember to thank her later for the fact that she made it sound as though he had been with them when they got found out.

‘Not giving me a bad reputation are you Hermione?’ He said smiling.

‘Of course not.’

‘Did you really get detention at school Draco?’ Hannah said.

‘What slanderous filth!’ He said in a wounded tone. There was a beat. ‘If you don’t get detention at least once while you are at school you’re not doing it right.’ As if remembering that he was talking to a, rather large, group of his students he added: ‘But I didn’t tell you that, you didn’t hear me say it.’

He joined their conversation marvelling at the fact that she managed to, not only single out the, really very few, stories that involved all four of them but to make it sound as if they were all friends. It was truly an art form. He would find out later that she was so good at it because that was the way she had told them to her parents.

At about quarter to ten Draco interrupted Hermione, who had moved on from the stories and was now chatting.

‘Sorry guys, Hermione, your husband is monopolising my seeker, would you come and drag him away?’

‘Sure. I’ll see you guys later.’ She said to the small cluster of students she was still speaking to. Hermione, who was growing tired of entertaining them, was grateful for the rescue.

‘Thanks for the save.’

‘No worries. But seriously, it’s nearly time to head to the pitch and Ron is monopolising the seekers.’

‘Your seekers sit together before they play each other?’

‘They’re twins. I’ve literally never seen them more than ten metres apart except at practice or during a game.’

‘They’re actually twins, seriously, I thought Harry was joking when he said they were twins.’

‘No, they are. The other two are cousins of theirs.’

‘Really?’

Draco then introduced Hermione to The Three Musketeers, as well as Jayne, Joel and the rest of the cluster of McLoneys. Zachary, who sensed the general desire at the table to leave for the Quidditch pitch offered to show Ron and Hermione the stands while the rest of the group prepared for the game. An offer they gladly accepted. Harry and Draco sent him a grateful look.

At about ten o’clock The Preforming Sorcerers, along with the school band played several numbers, two of which were originals and the rest were show tunes from various musicals. Ron had never heard any of these of course but Hermione was familiar with about half of them. They were surprised at the spectacle made with the entrance of the players. They were also surprised that both teams entered together in the two by two formation. There was thunderous applause and several wolf whistles, one of witch coming from Hermione, as Harry and Draco kissed chastely after the coin toss and went to their seats. This was something that they had decided to do with no small amount of encouragement from the Twins as the Beaters took off on their circuit. Sylvia Gayle was the umpire for the game on her whistle the game began at around half past ten. As it had been the last time the score was almost point for point. The snitch was elusive for the better part of three hours. During this time, a bludger had hit Lillian Archer’s broom, sending her spiralling towards the ground. Ken, had before he knew what he was doing, put on a burst of speed and caught his little sister just seconds before she hit the ground. The stands erupted with cheers. Ron was slightly puzzled until Zachary explained to him that they were brother and sister. The two of them took off again and re-joined their teams after Lillian gave the signal that she was fine to both Harry and the Ravenclaw reserves.  To the pleasure of everyone in the stands the quest for the snitch again ended in another epic chase involving the twins. They had spotted it in almost the same instant. And the chase had begun, they had almost reached it when it shot straight up, the twins followed. It then lead them on a chase, involving several loop the loops, two of them upside down, an almost ninety degree nose dive finishing mere inches from the ground, several figure eights and ending in a majestic swoop. When they came to a stop a murmur passed through the crowd. Nobody had seen witch of them had caught it. The twins looked at each other they mouthed in unison One… Two… Three. And Joel raised his fist in the air, triumphant, the snitch glistening in the sunlight between his fingers. The crowd erupted again and the Twins lead the teams on a lap of the stadium and down to the ground. The twins again slung their arms around each other’s shoulders.

Harry and Draco again made the rounds of the teams together, beginning this time with the Archers, who had yet to be joined by their sister, though the stands had begun to empty and some of the students had found their way onto the pitch already.

‘That was an impressive catch.‘ Harry told Ken.

‘Thanks, I don’t remember anything between seeing he fall and catching her.’

‘Are you both ok?’ Draco asked

‘Bit shaken up but we’ll be fine.’ Lillian said.

‘They breed ‘em tough in these parts. You did good today.’ Harry said, Draco nodded in agreement. As June Archer was coming towards them looking concerned, they left to make the rest of the rounds. They met up with Ron, Hermione and the McLoney clan, who were gathered around the Twins.

‘Excellent show guys.’ Harry said. He, Ron, Hermione and Draco stayed and chatted for a short time before heading for the room of requirement, which they had eventually found, or rather, they had asked Zachary and he had told them, it was just beyond the main building. They had used it a handful of times though they had yet to summon the room with the mirror of erised. The four of them had summoned a sitting room witch bore a striking resemblance to one that they had used in the castle. Once they were sitting down Ron was the first to speak.

‘I don’t get these people. They win at Quidditch, they celebrate. They lose at Quidditch, they celebrate. They don’t play Quidditch, they celebrate,’

‘It’s a very together type place Ron. They don’t take themselves too seriously. You’ve seen, every single person on this station is on first name terms, outside the classroom at least, and most of them inside as well.’ Harry began.

‘Thing about this place is that everybody seems to like each other.’ Draco continued.

‘House around here just means you wear the same colour shirt most of the time.’ Harry added

‘There’s this spirit of friendly competition around here. They are really fiercely competitive, until the match is over, then everything goes back to normal.’ Draco finished.

Ron looked at Hermione, both of them wondering if the back and forth dialogue was intentional. It had been but neither Harry nor Draco were going to tell the other two that. They had done it to prove a point. Draco excused himself some time later, saying that he had arranged to meet Zachary to make several potions for the hospital wing. He didn’t really need the help, but Zachary was good company. They spent the afternoon together while Harry took Ron and Hermione on the long version of the tour. Later that night Harry and Ron joined the group who had gone bunny bashing, while Draco and Hermione had stayed behind. They had got to talking. The topic had drifted until it landed on Severus Snape.

‘I’m intrigued Draco, what was he like?’

‘Who, Severus? I think under different circumstances the two of you would have gotten on quite well.’

‘Such as?’

‘If Lilly Potter was still alive. He told me that sometimes you reminded him of her so much it hurt. He probably could have bared it if you didn’t spend so much time with Harry that reminded him too much of what he had lost. Come with me, I’ve got something to show you.’ They went outside and Draco aperated them to just outside his potions classroom. On the station it was possible, though not allowed for students, to aperate within the wards. This was necessary because of the sheer size of the station aperating into buildings was not possible though. Draco, like Harry, preferred the feeling of flying, but apparition was much easier in the dark. They went in and Draco cast an illuminating charm. Illuminating charms were used at the station rather than the torched used at the castle firstly because illuminating charms did not generate heat, which was a godsend on a forty degree day. Secondly it was due to the bushfire season. During bushfire season, which typically runs from the beginning of November through most of April, it is frankly moronic to use flame for anything. This is because fire can spread through dry grass and trees at incredible speed and can become so large in these situations that sometimes it cannot be extinguished, even with suppression charms, and all that can be done is to contain it and let it burn itself out.

Draco summoned the jars he had shown Harry in the first week, plus some: Fenny Snake, Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog, Wool of Bat, Tongue of Dog, Adder’s Fork, Blind-Worm’s Sting, Lizard’s Leg, Howlet’s Wing, Liver of blaspheming Jew and Nose of Turk. Hermione examined them. It took her a moment, as they were out of order but she got it eventually.

‘That’s Macbeth. I didn’t think he’d have gone for that sort of thing.’

‘He had an excellent sense of humour Severus. Not many people knew that. He kept these around because they looked cool, and to see if anyone noticed. I didn’t, not until he introduced me to Shakespeare. They were Lilly’s idea, he loved her until the day he died. He told me once that the most exciting moment of his life was when he used ‘fenny snake’ in a potion with ‘eye of newt’, it was the only time he ever used either of them. He was an excellent teacher, to me anyway. He did favour you a bit, you know, gave you five points every time you got a higher score than me. Gave me five points whenever my score was higher than yours, we were the only ones he ever did that for. We were the only ones he ever did that for, while we were there anyway.’

‘That was his caldron too wasn’t it?’ She said recognising it.

‘Yea, it was his favourite, mainly because Lilly gave it to him one Christmas.’

‘Your whole classroom is a shrine to Severus Snape?’

‘Only to those who knew him, or who I’ve told, and of the people who knew him, properly knew him, I’m the only one left. Lilly’s dead, Dumbledore’s dead, Remus Lupin is dead, he didn’t have any family long before I knew him and he never married. Somehow I thought I’d be much older before I said that about anyone. So it only counts for the people I’ve told. Harry, Zachary and you.’

‘Has anyone noticed yet? The eye of newt and toe of frog thing I mean.’

‘Apart from Harry and Zachary, only Henry Faulding, Muggle-Born forth year, his dad’s a pharmacist, told me he used to make his own exema cream when he was a kid with his dad.’

‘My dad let me do a filling on my mum once.’

‘Really?’

‘Yea, about a fortnight before I started at Hogwarts, going away present. Watched me like a hawk the whole time of course.’

‘I made my first potion with Severus when I was eight, my parents would go to France every summer and I would stay with him for a month and we would spend afternoons in his potions lab. One afternoon he taught me to make my first potion. I was expecting it to come up first year but it didn’t come up till the end of third year though. Do you remember that lesson where nobody else’s potion worked apart from mine and yours?’

‘Oh, yes, I remember that week. You’d done that one before?’

‘Yep, you got the points that week.’

They talked for a bit and then decided to move back to Harry and Draco’s place before the other two got back.

About half an hour later the other two returned from their escapades, grinning manically.

‘How did it go?’ Hermione asked.

‘Ron was fascinated by the rifle. Lucky it wasn’t loaded, he nearly shot himself.’ Hermione burst into laughter at this. Draco tried gallantly not to do the same but he soon shook with silent laughter. Ron blushed a light shade of pink that clashed horribly with his hair. Draco pored them all tea, a local blend, they stayed up until just before midnight conversation drifting pleasantly

* * *

 

Ron and Hermione were leaving after lunch on Sunday. That morning they experienced the bush breakfast, which was held every once in a while, whenever Richard felt like it. It was only the second one of the year because of the fact that the fire danger season had only just ended and it entailed cooking breakfast over an open fire, something the older students took turns doing. On this occasion it was the McLoney Twins and The Three Musketeers. The other component of the bush breakfast was a sing along. It featured songs such as ‘Click Go The Shears’, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, ’Bound For Botany Bay’ and ‘Give Me A Home Among The Gumtrees as well as several other folk tunes and some more contemporary songs. These songs had all happened on the train and on several other occasions, so Harry and Draco knew most of them by now. Hermione and Ron however had never heard most of them before. It was for their benefit that Harry cast a karaoke charm. Hermione joined in for most of the songs. Ron was less certain but eventually joined in. Harry found it almost strange that at all of the impromptu sing-alongs that tended to happen the entire school fell into near perfect harmony.  The whole shin dig ended at about eleven o’clock.

By the time Hermione and Ron left that afternoon the pair of them were quite taken with the school. Ron was not yet sold on the Idea of trusting Draco, but the two of them had made considerable progress. Ron could now hold a rudimentary conversation with Draco without ‘accidentally’ insulting him. He had also managed to stop referring to Draco as ‘ferret’. This was mostly due to Hermione’s lecture on Friday night. It occurred to both Harry and Hermione that it would be a long process for their respective spouses to be able to actually consider each other friends.

 In actual fact Ron liked Draco far more than he let on. Though he just couldn’t trust him quite yet. As Harry had said they did have quite a lot more in common than either had originally thought and despite himself he found that he enjoyed Draco’s company. Hermione also seemed to enjoy his company, another thing that surprised him. Draco quite clearly made Harry happier than he had been in years. He resolved, for the sake of his wife and his best friend to trust Draco. Hermione was, as per usual, right, he could well gain a friend.

Once they had left, Harry and Draco had sat down to write their letters to England. Harry was writing Dudley, they had begun a semi regular correspondence and Dudley had invited them to dinner sometime in early December at his house with Susan, Vernon and Petunia. Harry had been reluctant at first but had agreed after some convincing from Draco. He was also writing Molly who insisted he write at least once a fortnight, as she did all of her children. Draco was again writing only his mother. They sent Shylock just before dinner.

It was much later in the evening when they were in bed that they finally discussed Hermione and Ron’s visit.

‘Well, that went better than I expected.’ Harry said tiredly.

‘Yea, tell me about it. I’m glad Hermione and I had that chat last night.’

‘What did you talk about?’

‘Quite a lot actually. She liked my classroom ornaments.’

‘I thought she might. What was she choking over on Friday night at dinner?’

‘Remember when she punched me in the face third year?’

‘Now you mention it, yea. She was quite proud of that.’

‘I told her we could take that punch and call the rest water under the bridge.’ Harry laughed at this.

‘What about Ron, did you find some common ground.’

‘We did actually. I don’t think he quite trusts me yet but we made more progress than I expected.’

‘I didn’t really expect him to just yet. I think he likes you more than he’s letting on.’

‘What gives you that Idea?’

‘He stopped calling you ‘ferret’, and not just to your face. I’m not sure if he’s even noticed.’

This pleased Draco somewhat. Their conversation drifted sleepily for a short while but they both drifted off fairly soon after.


	11. A Well Deserved Break

Soon the holidays rolled around again. All the students had left the school this time. Timothy had headed up to Brome to stay with Mason and his family, a prospect at which they had both been quite excited. The station being almost entirely deserted, Harry and Draco had decided to see some more of Australia. The two of them had asked advice from the other staff and students on where to go. The resounding answers were Tumby Bay, a small half Muggle town on the coast of south Australia: Coffin Bay, a slightly smaller, almost entirely Wizarding town, also on the coast of South Australia; Broome, up the top of Western Australia; The Gold Coast, up the top of Queensland; Hobart, in Tasmania; Wagga Wagga, at the bottom of New South Wales, Uluru, pretty much smack dab in the middle of the country and Sydney.

Eventually they had decided to start with South Australia. They began with two days in Adelaide, the state’s capital. They found the city entirely unique, much like the station, the majority of its inhabitants, didn’t take themselves too seriously and on more than one occasion they had seen a uniformed police officer stop and pose for a photo with a small child. While they were there was an international guitar festival going on. They would find out later that it was not often that there wasn’t a festival of some sort going on in Adelaide.

After Adelaide the two of them visited Tumby Bay, a small town comprised in almost equal parts Wizards and Muggles. They found that the existence of magic was unofficially known by most of the Muggle population here. Tumby Bay being a town where everyone knows everything about everyone else this was unavoidable. They would later find out that there had never been a statute of secrecy in Australia but there was a firm understanding that magic was need to know.

Tumby Bay was coincidentally the town where Henry Faulding lived and on their second day they ran into him and his dad in the local pharmacy witch his family owned. Henry’s father was a tall and easy going man named Leonard who considered his staff family. He was in the Dispensary with a shortish blond woman by the name of Evangeline. Henry was standing behind the counter comparing his potions textbook with an old Pharmacopeia from 1951 that had belonged to his grandfather, also a Pharmacist, he had come across more than one identical, or very nearly, elixir or salve. Leonard would have protested this but, of the two of them, Henry was being the more productive as it was a slow day and Leonard himself was stealthily reading a newspaper. Henry looked up from his books a moment later and saw them. He greeted them warmly. Leonard looked up when he heard his son speak and joined them a moment later.

“Dad, this is my Potions teacher Draco Malfoy and this is Harry Potter, he teaches Defence against the Dark Arts. Harry, Draco, this is my dad Leonard.”

“Nice to meet you, what are you doing in our neck of the woods?”

“Seeing the sights, we were told that Tumby was one of the places to see.” Harry answered.

“I’ve always thought so.”

They conversed for a while and then Harry and Draco took their leave and continued along the street. They stayed in Tumby Bay for about a week and they ran into Henry and his family twice more. They also ended up meeting a couple of other students who lived in and around the town. All the people, Muggle and wizard alike, they met were lovely and they were again inclined to think that Britain, and not just the wizarding part, had missed the point entirely. On their last day in town they happened across a stall in the main street, from which they acquired a tray of the most amazing shortbread either of them had ever tasted.

The last three days were spent in one of only a handful of solely wizarding towns in the whole country. It was a beachside town called Coffin Bay, about an hour out of Tumby Bay, with a population in the hundreds. Harry thought of it as Hogsmeade with a beach. Though Draco laughed at this at first but later found that it was actually somewhat accurate. They had rented themselves a shack for their visit and they found themselves doing little more while they were there other than sitting on the veranda and reading comic books, of which there was an ample supply in the cupboards, and watching the sun set over the ocean. They saw, on multiple occasions dolphins in the ocean witch was like glass, smooth and clear.

By the time they returned to the station Draco’s skin tone had graduated from ‘British ghost’ to ‘Australian ghost’ witch, while he was still the palest person on the station by quite a margin, including some of the ghosts, was a marked improvement.


	12. The Bullockies Ball

Two weeks after the holidays heralded the annual Bullockies Ball another visit from England. Dean and Seamus were due to arrive on Friday afternoon and were staying for just over a week. Both Harry and Draco were looking forward to their visit. Draco was quite surprised to find that he was anticipating their visit almost as much as Harry was. It was perhaps the fact that, of all the visitors who had come to see them the only, even remotely, negative reaction had come from Ron and even that hadn’t been too bad and so he found himself cautiously optimistic at the prospect. There were several big events planned for the time they were on the station. The first was that the performances of The Merchant of Venice were due to open on the Friday night and run until the Sunday night in a theatre in Ballarat. The second thing was the Quidditch match between Hufelpuff and Slytherin scheduled to happen on that Saturday. That weekend also being a long weekend there was a Bush Breakfast happening on Monday morning. The following weekend was set to begin with a Formal dinner on the Friday night, followed on The Saturday night by the annual Bullockies Ball, which was much anticipated by Students and Faculty alike. That Saturday was also the final Ravenclaw and Hufelpuff showdown before finals then that Sunday night was a barbeque. The barbeque dinners, and occasionally lunches, at the Station were essentially the same set up as the bush breakfast and also much anticipated.

Seamus and Dean arrived, as had become the norm with British visitors, a little while after lunch. Harry had met them just beyond the wards and given them the short version of the tour ending in Draco’s first year class. Harry was again relinquishing his bed to his friends. Seamus responded to this by saying that he would thank him but he had a feeling that Harry really didn’t mind sharing a bed with Draco for a week. This earned him a poke to the ribs from Dean and an innocent look from Harry. Both Seamus and Dean were impressed with Draco’s teaching, and they told him so. Their afternoon ended in the air, it was a clear day and Harry and Draco had decided to show them the station on brooms. They gravitated towards the dining hall just before dinner and Seamus and Dean were both surprised and delighted, as had become expected, at the seating arrangements. They joined The Three Musketeers, as was the norm when they had company. Jayne and Joel joined them a little later. They were up to something, Harry and Draco could tell, though it would be well into the next week before they found out what it was. About a quarter of the school was absent, as they were either involved in The Merchant of Venice or were going to opening night in Ballarat. Curtain was at seven o’clock and if the rehearsals Draco and Harry had managed to sit in on were anything to go by, it was going to be a very good show, Dinner passed pleasantly, Dean and Seamus seemed to be, and were, enjoying themselves. The four of them ended up back in Harry and Draco’s lounge room by about eight o’clock and were soon talking over tea. The topic of conversation was weighted heavily towards Quidditch, particularly Draco’s team, who were playing the next day. The conversation would occasionally drift, as expected Draco actually had a good deal in common with Seamus and Dean. Though the conversation, on about seven occasions, briefly returned to Quidditch both Dean and Seamus had taken a liking to Draco quite quickly. It was about eleven when the four of them decided to turn in.

The next morning began in the same way most Saturdays did, reasonably early and fairly slowly. They went to breakfast. The atmosphere still had a certain buzz, though it wasn’t as pronounced as it was on Huffelepuff Ravenclaw showdown days, still everyone seemed to be in high spirits. Seamus remarked on this.

‘They don’t take themselves too seriously here. Whoever wins a game, they all celebrate, could have something to do with the fact that in almost every game there are players on both teams related to each other. Take the seekers, all four of them are cousins and ours are twins.’ Harry said.

‘Really? I thought Ron was kidding when he said that.’ Dean remarked.

‘I think they just like being able to let their hair down and do something as a community and watching Quidditch is the one thing that everyone on the station does. Including the ones who don’t really like it.’ Draco added.

They ate breakfast that morning with a group of fourth and fifth years who had waved them over as they entered the dining hall. Harry introduced them all to Dean and Seamus. One of the fifth year girls was shamelessly and openly ogling Seamus until, a slightly possessive, Dean put an arm around his waist. At which point the girl promptly stopped. The same girl had done this to Draco earlier in the year and Harry had coincidentally remedied the situation in much the same way.

Matches between Hufelpuff and Slytherin, though slightly less so than those between Hufelpuff and Ravenclaw, were quite popular and just as much of an event. The day started, as per usual a bit before ten. The Preforming Sorcerers, who overlapped almost entirely with the cast of Annie, did a couple of numbers from the show mixed in with some others. Dean and Seamus were again impressed. Harry was sat with Zachary, Dean, and Seamus in the stands and there was a seat next to him for Draco when he had finished with the coin toss. Soon enough the players entered the pitch with their usual showmanship. Beginning with the reserves. Erin Herrod led the Hufelpuffs with Miriam Wright, an actor in sixth year, who was leading the Slytherins; Followed by Emily Lake  and Georgia Wright, a seventh year Tenor, in Slytherin; behind them were Callan Langdon and Ruby Taylor, a third year who belonged to the Hunt Club; They were followed by the Chasers, Lauren Hastings and Thomas Robbins              , a fifth year with an aptitude for charms; then Paul Harris and Rosalie McLoney; and Ken Archer and Eden Woods; They were then followed by the Beaters, Lucy Benton and John Yates, a fourth year who she knew from the fencing club; Then Tristan Aldred and Dylan            Knight who was also a fencer; Then came the Keepers Mark Kirk and Alexandria Paris, a sixth year who was also a part of the Slytherin synchronised flying team; The Seekers followed, Joel McLoney and Roxanne Moore Draco and  Jessica Hook, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Hunt Master and Coach and Manager of the Slytherin Team followed. After the coin toss Richard, who was umpiring the match set the Bludgers and the Snitch lose and the game began. In the first hour neither team scored, due to both keepers being on a particularly prominent streak. The first score of the match came from Eden Woods well into the second hour. The snitch was spotted by Rosalie just into the third hour. It was a bit of a conundrum as it was hovering about six inches form Joel’s left ear. In the end she looked at it a moment too long and Joel turned his head to look a moment later. The snitch lead a short, though impressive chase witch Joel won. The score in the end was Slytherin 20, Hufelpuff 160. At the end of the game Draco left them to do the rounds of his team and the other three followed a little while later.

The following evening Harry and Draco took Dean and Seamus to dinner at one of their favourite restaurants in Ballarat before the four of them went to the closing night of The Merchant of Venice. Dean and Seamus both remarked upon the lack of magic used in the performance.

‘Most of the people who go on to be professional actors usually wind up working with Muggle actors so they are taught to act without using it. Most of the wizarding actors in most of the global wizarding community feel like they’re acting with a hand tied behind their back when they can’t use magic on stage, thus halving their job opportunities. All the professional actors and directors trained here are trained in their craft without magic, the stage is even lit in the Muggle way. In a sense, that’s why most of the great wizarding actors are Australians, that and they actually teach it here.’ Draco told them, he had done a considerable amount of research on the subject since taking the job.

The show had, as expected, been a success. Dominic Swift had been a marvellous Shylock alongside Thomas Marlowe as Antonio and Erin Herrod as Jessica. Unbeknownst to the cast there had been several agents in the audience and all three of them, as well as Eliza Jammison, and Charles Darcy, both seventh years, had been approached after the show.

Dean and Seamus were taken with the Bush breakfast the next morning. In charge of the food in this instance was the Hunt club. Draco, Harry, Dean and Seamus ended up sitting with The Three Musketeers and a smattering of McLoneys.

‘Congratulations Dominic, I heard you got yourself an agent last night.’  Harry said.

‘I did yea, Thanks Harry.’ He replied.

‘I’m proud.’ Matthew said kissing him on the cheek. There was a wolf whistle from somewhere at this point, tough nobody was quite sure where. The sing along started up fairly soon after with what seemed to be a firm favourite and unofficial school song, ‘Give Me a Home among the Gumtrees’. The words seemed oddly fitting.

_I’ve been around the world_

_A couple of times or maybe more_

_I’ve seen the sights, I’ve had delights_

_On every foreign shore_

_But when my mates all ask me_

_The place that I adore_

_I tell them right away._

_Give me a home among the gumtrees,_

_With lots of plum trees._

_A sheep or two and a k-kangaroo_

_A clothesline out the back,_

_A veranda out the front_

_And an old rocking chair._

_You’ll see me in the kitchen_

_Cooking up a roast_

_Or vegemite on toast._

_Just you and me, a cup of tea_

_And later on we’ll settle down_

_And go out on the porch_

_And watch the possums play._

_There’s a Safeway’s up the corner_

_And a Woollies down the street_

_And a brand new place they’ve opened up_

_Where they regulate the heat_

_But I’d trade them all tomorrow_

_For a little bush retreat_

_Where the kookaburras call._

_Some people like their houses_

_With fences all around_

_Others live in mansions_

_And some beneath the ground_

This line was given to the dozen or so students from Roxby Downs.

_But me I like the bush, you know_

_With Rabbits running round_

_And a pumpkin vine out the back._

The mood at the breakfast was, as usual with public holidays quite relaxed and upbeat. As a result breakfast turned into lunch with people coming and going throughout. This happened quite often and was unofficially planed for.

* * *

 

Tuesday came and the week officially began. It was a fairly lazy week, as was normal after a long weekend and the first thing of note that happened was a visit from Charlie and David which came on the Wednesday night. It was a slow week for them as well. Dean and Seamus had spent the week alternating between Harry and Draco’s classes. The McLoney twins instigated, what was the years third, prank war on the Thursday afternoon witch continued off and on for almost a fortnight and dragged in the whole school, students and faculty alike.

Friday came and the formal dinner was held. All Richard had as far as announcements were concerned was a blanket congratulations for the successful season of The Merchant Of Venice and an announcement that Annie was running from the following Wednesday till the Sunday. He also gave the news that the final bonfire of the year would be held in the last weekend in October. He made a point, as if as an afterthought to please respect school and personal property in the course of the prank war, then made a point to announce that he was in fact in. Seamus and Dean were mildly disappointed that they wouldn’t be around for either the bonfire or the rest of the prank war.

The following morning brought about the final showdown between Hufelpuff and Ravenclaw. Seamus and Dean found that the atmosphere was indeed different to the previous week. Everyone’s good mood was again amplified by the excitement over the ball to be held that night. The four of them ate with The McLoney twins at breakfast. The pair of them were trading the odd good natured taunt between laughing at their cousin, and the latest casualty of the prank war Layla Moore, who had been turned ghastly shade of pink by somebody, they would find out later that it had been Zachary armed with another variant of his ‘Pride potion’ witch regrettably made the drinker stay one colour for twenty four hours, there was of course an antidote but neither Draco nor Zachary were going to reveal this fact. There were a smattering of other obvious victims around the room, including Richard, whose, usually grey, hair was flashing in different colours, the one to have done this was Henry Faulding who had spiked the principals shampoo with a classic ‘Pride Potion’ that Draco had made with all his fourth years the previous week. This would last about six hours. The classic Pride potion when swallowed causes the drinkers skin to change colour and wears off after an hour when applied topically however it lasts a good deal longer.

The match was preceded as usual by The Preforming Sorcerers. The turnout for the day was fairly substantial and the spectators included the state members of parliament for magic. The Member for Western Australia was a  tall and muscular man from Broome named Rowan Flint, a Slytherin Alumni; The Member for the Northern Territory was a man of kindly deportment named Zachary Emerson, a Gryffindor Alumni; Member for South Australia was an Adelaide Gryffindor Alumni named Penny Aldred who had taken to moonlighting as an Aurour; The Member for Queensland was a tanned woman by the name of Sophie Ramsey; Marcus Smith, the member for New South Wales, was a Hufelpuff Alumni of quite small stature; Callan Williams. Member for Tasmania was an altogether ordinary looking Ravenclaw Alumni. The only state member not present was the Victorian member, Joseph Moran who was at a conference in New Zealand that weekend. The Federal Member for magic was an older man by the name of George Piedmontite, a nice man who had visited for various events during the year. He was also present and had taken the seat next to Dean who hadn’t realised who it was he was sitting next to until Draco mentioned it after the mach. The players came out with pomp and circumstance, as they always did and after the coin toss the game began. The match was again effectively point for point. It was not until well into the third hour that the Snitch was spotted. It was unclear as to who had spotted it first but the match ended in another epic chase between the twins of witch Joel was the victor.

* * *

 

That night heralded the annual school Ball. The room of requirement had turned into a vast ballroom with polished wooden floors and a transparent ceiling. Around the edges of the room were tables filled with finger food. There was a band in one corner of the room who had been brought in from Ballarat and were very good. The students started arriving at about four o’clock. All of the boys, as well as Jayne McLoney and Sophie Harrison, a seventh year Gryffindor, had arrived in dinner suits while the rest of the girls came in evening gowns. Most of the students above fourth year had brought a date. A handful of the younger students had also come in pairs, mostly though they had arrived in groups. Eden Woods had arrived with Phoebe Hardgraves, a fourth year alto in Ravenclaw. The two of them had been in a relationship for about four months. Matthew Stout and Dominic Swift, of course, arrived together. They were closely followed by Zachary McLoney and his date, Daniel Walsh, a sixth year Ravenclaw with a gift for Herbology and arguably one of the best looking boys in the school. When they had gotten together almost two years previously it had dashed the hopes of a number of female students as well as a smattering of the males. Close behind them was Declan Garrett who had brought Alexis Keating, a seventh year dancer whom he had been dating for about a year and a half. At about five o’clock The McLoney twins arrived, Joel had come with Olivia Rhodes, a sixth year actor in Slytherin who he had been dating for a little over a year. Jayne The week went on and Minerva had been taken by the school more with each passing day. She spent her time between Draco’s classroom, Harry’s Classroom and the symposium. Saturday morning came and there was a buzz in the air, even more so than final day.

At seven o’clock the party was in full swing. The music had moved from a mellow swing to a more upbeat classic rock and the majority of the people in the room were dancing and everyone was having a good time. By about ten the crowd had thinned somewhat and it was mostly couples present. Changed to a country and western feel. Harry and Draco, who had been dancing together along with The Three Musketeers, The McLoney Twins and Dean and Seamus for most of the night, were now dancing so close that it was hard to tell where one began and the other ended. By eleven o’clock the music had slowed and it was only the fourteen of them left on the dance floor. Another dozen or so people were sitting around the dance floor watching them. By midnight the party had wrapped up and Harry and Draco were left with the task of sending the remaining students to their common rooms while the band packed up. The main appeal of using the room of requirement for this was of course that it largely cleaned itself.

The next day started, as expected, quite late and very little was accomplished, though the hunt club did manage a half day ride and the fencing club did have its monthly tournament. Dinner that night was a barbeque that was prepared by the Archery club. They all watched the sun set and a sing along was spontaneously started. And watching the exquisite sunset while listening to almost three hundred voices sang in, seemingly impossible, harmony was a breathtaking experience that Harry and Draco felt truly blessed to be a part of.

Dean and Seamus left later that evening. Harry had been pleased at the way that Draco had hit it off with them both, they had seemed to warm to him almost instantly and the three of them found they had a great deal in common. Dean and Seamus had also been particularly taken by the school and had promised a return visit or two the following year.


	13. Lest We Forget

The following week brought the season of Annie, which was a success as well as the end of the prank war, which was declared a draw. Soon enough November came, bringing with it rapidly warming weather, exams and Remembrance Day.

The Remembrance Day happenings on The Station consisted of a service held on the Quidditch pitch. During this service a flag was raised, this was followed by the traditional minutes silence in memory of all victims of war, Muggle and Wizard alike. This was followed by the listing of the names of all Hogwarts Alumni as well as friends and family members of staff and students who had served or were currently serving in combat.

The service had been run, for the past three years, by Henry Faulding. It had been discovered early in his second year that his father’s great Uncle had been one of the Rats of Tubruk. He had later taken the surrender of the Japanese forces in a state of Borneo. Harry had been offered the job of leading the service by Richard but had declined.

‘Richard, I’m just the savour of the Wizarding world, Great, Great Nephew of a Rat of Tubruk, is much more impressive than that. I will play a part in the service but I think it should still be led by Henry,’ Harry had told him firmly.

ANZAC Day was taken just as seriously and the traditional dawn service had been run by Henry in April. Harry had declined any official involvement in that service.

‘It’s not my day, I’m not an ANZAC and I really don’t think it’s my place.’ Harry had told Richard who had been half hoping for that answer.

Everyone on the Station gathered in the stands of the Quidditch pitch at ten thirty. The Synchronised flying teams formed a guard of Honour witch Henry lead Harry, Draco and the handful of veterans who were present through on brooms. There were several seventh years in various military uniforms, Army, Navy, Air Force, Special Forces, lined up to one side of a podium. Harry, Draco and the other veterans stood on the other side. Everyone stood for the national anthem while the flag was raised by Henry and the service began.

The Last Post was played to herald the minute’s silence just before eleven o’clock. It was played again at one minute past eleven. This was followed by Henry reciting the ode.

_‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;_

_Age shall not weary them, no the years condemn._

_At the going down of the sun and in the morning_

_We will remember them.’_

There was a pause before he said:

_‘Lest we forget.’_

Witch was echoed by the entire gathering. Reveille was played and Henry led the procession back to the main building where the students dispersed to their classes.


	14. The Business End

Exams came soon after this and so there was a marked decline in social activities. The Quidditch grand final would usually happen on the second Saturday in November. This year it was between Ravenclaw and Hufelpuff. The Gryffindors and the Slytherins couldn’t be too disappointed over this because it was sure to be a good show.

Final day came and there was an extra buzz in the air, everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Harry, who had woken up quite early was watching Draco sleep next to him. It had come to the point, due to the warming weather, sometime in October where they had taken to sleeping under nothing but a sheet.

Draco’s eyes fluttered open about twenty minutes later.

‘Morning harry.’ Draco yawned.

‘Morning Dragon.’ Harry said with a contented hum.

‘Watcha thinking about?’

‘Our first Quidditch match, it was, almost exactly eight years ago.’

‘It was wasn’t it? D’you remember when Ron tried to hex me and he spent the rest of the day throwing up slugs because the spell backfired on him?’

‘Actually he spent the rest of the day complaining about throwing up slugs. He was only actually throwing them up for about half an hour but yea, I do.’

‘How about the time you broke your wrist and Lockhart made the bones disappear.’

‘Ah, skelli-gro, that was a rough night.’

‘I bet it was.’

‘That was Dobby’s bludger. Well, Dobby’s bludger and Lockhart’s singular ineptitude.’

‘Dobby’s bludger? As in my old house elf Dobby?’

‘Yea, didn’t I tell you about that? He tried to get me not to go back to the Castle that year, he just about got me expelled over that summer. He’s the one who closed off the platform on Ron and me. Then he tried to get me so badly injured with that bludger that I couldn’t go back. Heard your dad plotting the whole diary thing apparently.’

‘I wish the Castle was like this.’ It was a sentiment they both often expressed.

‘So did the people who founded this place.’ Harry reminded him.

They reminisced a while longer before getting up for breakfast. They ate that Morning with The Three Musketeers and the McLoney Twins as had become the norm for game day.

The Quidditch Grand final was usually umpired by somebody from outside the school. This year it was the Federal Member of Parlement for Magic, George Piedmontite. This was not a hard and fast rule but it had become a tradition over the years. The Preforming Sorcerers and the school band started playing at about ten thirty. The players came onto the field as they always did, with perhaps a little extra showmanship. The game began at eleven o’clock after the coin toss. The game lasted just under three hours and was essentially point for point. The game had ended in another epic race for the snitch. The Twins had managed to shield witch one of them had caught the snitch again and they had done a lap or two together before coming to rest in the middle of the pitch. They both stretched out closed fists. Jayne opened her hand to reveal the snitch and the crowd erupted with cheers.

The players landed and a podium appeared. The Ravenclaw team lined up to the left side and the Hufelpuff team lined up on the right. Harry and Draco joined the Member for Magic and Richard on the podium.

‘Alright, that was some match. It is my pleasure, as federal Member for Magic, to announce the winner of the Quidditch season here at the station. In last place is the Gryffindor team.’ There was applause and cheering from the stands, witch soon died down and he continued. ‘Third place goes to The Slytherin team.’ Again there was a ruckus from the stands. ‘In second place is The Hufelpuff team.’ The stands erupted again and George had to wait some time to be heard. ‘And in first place is The Ravenclaw Team.’ The stands erupted once more. When the din had subsided enough for him to be heard again he continued. ‘Congratulations everyone. So, who are the seekers for the match next week?’ He asked Draco and Harry. It was tradition for whoever caught the snitch in the final to play seeker for the student team in the match against thee staff. Like many of the station’s traditions it was not a hard and fast rule but it was seldom not the case. Richard had left it to Harry and Draco to decide who would play seeker for the staff team and the other would play in Keeper.

‘Well, since Jayne’s been practicing against me all season we thought we’d put her up against Draco. So I’ll be Keeper next week, should be an interesting match’ Harry replied

‘I look forward to seeing it. I have to get going now but I’ll see you all next week enjoy your celebrations.’

Enjoy the celebrations they did, well into the next week.


	15. The Symposium

The following Wednesday saw the beginning of The International Hogwarts Symposium. This was essentially a gathering of the various heads of school to meet up and discuss things, some of these occasionally related to the running of a school. Minerva McGonagall had been considering skipping this one due to the fact that it was being held in November, right on the start of the Quiddich season but the chance to witness, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, the two students whose rivalry had been the thorn in her side for six years, not only being civil to each other, but actively being friends and then lovers, was too bizarre to pass up. In addition to this she had been hearing many of her ex-students, most notably her new Herbology Professor Neville Longbottom, raving about how fantastic the school was. She also could not pretend that she was not curious as to the teaching methods of both Draco and Harry, neither of whom could claim to have had ordinary schooling lives.

She arrived just after lunch on Wednesday and was met by her counterpart whom she had met several times. They delivered her belongings to one of the guest buildings before Richard showed her to Harry and Draco’s classrooms.

‘Afternoon classes just started, Harry has fifth years and Draco has sixth years. He told her, indicating the correct room. ‘They made me promise to let them give you the tour after they let out their classes.’ She thanked him and he left her to it.

After some internal debate she elected to visit Harry’s classroom first. When she silently let herself in she was not surprised to find he had a highly practical focus. It was almost twenty minutes before Harry saw her between correcting techniques. Seeing that everyone seemed to be doing alright for the moment, he approached her.

‘Hello Minerva.’ It felt a little odd to call her that in person. ‘Made it here in one piece I see.’

‘I did indeed. Teaching seems to agree with you, you look well.’

‘Thank you, I must admit I am enjoying myself.’ He turned to her after making sure none of the students were listening and said in a low voice, ‘None of the students know that we weren’t on the same side in the war, we would both appreciate it if it stayed that way. They’ve also been led to believe that we were friends in school.’

She scoffed. “I don’t know I can manage a lie that big Harry.’ Her tone shifted back to normal. ‘Of course. I’ll let you get back to your class. I’m intrigued to see how Draco teaches.’

‘I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.’ He called to her as she left.

She slipped silently into the Potions classroom and was indeed surprised at what she found. Draco was walking in between the desks, occasionally correcting techniques and giving parse. She was pleased to note that the students seemed to genuinely like him, something she never would have guessed of anyone regarding Draco Malfoy, except of course Severus. He came to the McLoney Twins who were sharing a workspace, they had the look of the Weasley Twins about them she thought, he stopped and said something that could have been good natured hazing. He came to join her a moment later,

‘Professor, you look well.’

‘And you Mr Malfoy. Teaching seems a good fit for you. And you may call me Minerva.’

‘Thank you, I must admit I do quite like it.’

‘Who are the Weasley Twins?’

‘Damn it, I owe Harry a tenner. They’re our seekers, Joel and Jayne McLoney, They’re very good. I’m playing against Jayne in a match between a Student team and a Staff team on Saturday.’ He explained. Harry had bet Draco that McGonagall would immediately recognise the Weasley Twins in The McLoneys, a bet witch Draco had just lost.

After this brief exchange Draco returned to observing his class and Minerva observed, fascinated. The report she was taking back to their old professors was shaping up to be very interesting indeed. The lesson ended about half an hour later and Draco dismissed his students. Harry joined them outside soon after. Harry and Draco gave her the short version of the grand tour from the air, Draco having borrowed Joel’s broomstick for Minerva. She was fascinated by the vastness of the space and was quite taken by its beauty. She was handling the Australian late-spring heat remarkably well for someone who had, only hours before, come from early-winter in Scotland.

Although Harry had told her about the dining arrangements in his letters, she was still a little taken aback when she actually saw them. She had half expected to find, at least some of the staff sitting at the head table and at least some house divide. So she was surprised when she saw none of this. The three of them sat with The Three Musketeers and The McLoney Twins as well as Alexandra Paris who seemed to be joined to Jayne’s hip of late.

‘Minerva McGonagall, This is Dominic Swift, Matthew Stout, Zachary McLoney, Declan Garrett, Joel McLoney, Alexandra Paris and Jayne McLoney.’ Harry said indicating each in turn. Minerva greeted each of them in turn.

‘Thank you for the use of your broomstick, I quite enjoyed it.’ She said to Joel.

‘Anny time.’ He replied casually.

After dinner was the first meeting of the symposium which was held in the Room of Requirement. The five participants had discussed very little to do with the running of their respective schools. After an avid discussion about Quidditch the topic of the coming Staff on Student match came up and it had not come back around until very near the end of the session..

‘I don’t s’pose any of you would like to umpire the match? We need someone impartial, besides Sylvia and I are both playing.’

‘I would love to.’ Minerva said, trying not to sound overly eager. And so it was decided that she would umpire.


	16. The Much Anticipated Teacher Versus Student Match

The week went on and Minerva had been taken by the school more with each passing day. She spent her time between Draco’s classroom, Harry’s Classroom and the symposium. Saturday morning came and there was a buzz in the air unlike anything she had ever experienced.

Minerva was quite excited, she had not had the chance to umpire a Quidditch match in quite some time. She had not had the chance to play in even longer. A Staff and Student match, she thought, could do wonders for morale and the, frankly atrocious, house divide at the Castle. She had decided that this was one thing she was definitely introducing for the end of the season. Oliver Wood would gladly umpire the match, this would be a huge excitement for the students as he was now keeper for Puddlmeire United’s main squad. She had also decided to bite the bullet and allow Muggle pens in class, Harry was right, they were far more practical. Another thing she was considering introducing to the Quidditch matches was the theatrical entrance that seemed so popular on the station.

The players had on the previous evening practiced their entrances. An extra flourish was traditionally added for the match between Staff and Students. Playing in reserve were Georgia Wright, a seventh year Slytherin actor and John Lambert, who was the head of the Station’s English department. They led the teams onto the pitch and called the coin toss, as it was not likely either would have anything else to do. Their entrance involved a synchronised loop the loop followed by a barrel roll.

The Chasers for the Student team were: Lillian Archer, Ken Archer and Mark Kirk, who was usually the Hufelpuff Keeper. Their opponents on the Staff team were: Sylvia Gayle, the deputy head and Transfiguration teacher, Georgia Moffatt, who was the head of the humanities department and Jessica Hook who taught Care of Creatures and was the hunt master of the school hunt club.  Lillian and Sylvia led the chasers on, they started close to the ground and flew around each other in an upward spiral. They were followed by Ken and Georgia who did a lap of the stadium crisscrossing each other. Behind them were Mark and Jessica who came out together and proceeded to fly around the pitch in opposite directions.

The beaters on the student team, Charles and Joshua Darcy, brothers in seventh and third year respectively. They were up against and Richard Tiller and the charms teacher, Damien Smith, the pair of them had, in their student days, been the Slytherin Beaters. The first to come out were Charles and Richard who split off into a barrel roll and then zipped around the pitch. They were followed by Damien and Darcy who did a figure eight in opposite directions.

Alexandra Paris (who had won the position in a coin toss with Mark Kirk) was the keeper for the Student team and Harry for the staff team. They had come out backwards and done a loop the loop. It was quite impressive and had brought on more than a few gasps and a round of cheers and applause.

The Seekers, not to be outdone by their spouses, came out together splitting off in an arc and coming together again in a barrel roll before making a reverse vertical loop together.

They were followed out by Minerva who surprised everyone by showing off her considerable skill on a broomstick, which she had again borrowed from Joel. This had earned her a thunderous applause, she reflected later that rousing an applause from this particular group didn’t take all that much.

They had come on to the sound of The Preforming Sorcerers and been announced by Zachary, who was commentating the match. The match began and Harry proved himself a fair Keeper, blocking about half the points attempted, though not quite as many as Alexandra. The teams were quite even, being very nearly point for point the entire game. The Beaters were kept on their toes with a pair of quite lively bludgers, though not so much as the First Ravenclaw and Hufelpuff game of the season. The snitch was elusive for the first two hours until, almost simultaneously, Draco and Jayne saw it shine in the sunlight and they chased after it. Harry had to stop himself from instinctively doing the same. The snitch led them on another impressive chase and in a move that, he certainly, had not seen from Jayne before, she caught the Snitch. The stands erupted and the players landed. The Keepers promptly kissed their respective seekers to scattered wolf whistles, Jayne and Alexandra less reserved than Harry and Draco.

This was the first time Minerva had seen them kiss or do anything even remotely intimate. Both of them being rather private tended to do very little by way of public displays of affection generally but they had unconsciously toned it down even further while Minerva was around. In observing the two of them over the past three and a half days, Minerva had drawn several conclusions regarding their relationship. The first was that they deeply cared for each other. The second was that the two of them had not seen the need to forgive each other, they had acknowledged that they had both done things that they were not proud of and resolved to put it behind them. The third thing that she found was that they were both happier than she had ever seen either of them, though she was unsure if this was purely because of their relationship. She expected not. She had also found, by talking to the other staff and some of the students they were close to, that they had yet to fight. This had taken her somewhat by surprise, considering their history, on further reflection however she figured they had done enough fighting in school to last them several long lifetimes.

Charlie and David had made the trip to watch the match. Charlie had been happy to catch up with Minerva after the match, and she him, they had talked for a while before Charlie had left for New Zealand again.

Late the following day Minerva left, bidding Harry and Draco farewell. The Station’s school year ended the following Friday and after one final weekend on the station the train left, taking all of the students home. Timothy had been invited to stay with Mason’s Family in Broome for the summer holidays, a prospect at which he had been delighted. On the Train home Harry and Draco had shared a carriage with The Three Musketeers and a group of other, predominantly seventh year, students. The journey home was very like the journey out at the beginning of the year. There was a slightly sombre mood in their carriage over the fact that it was the last time for most of them. This only served to make them sing louder.


	17. The Mirror Of Erised

After seeing the students off they had returned to the station briefly in order to put their classrooms in some semblance of order and assess what supplies they would need for the next year.

On their last night they visited the Room Of Requirement to find the Mirror of Erised and successfully summoned the storeroom from the castle. They eventually found it, thankfully not having come across Goyle’s skeleton which was comparatively quite close and, strangely, had never been removed.

When they looked in the mirror at first they saw only their reflections, holding hands. After a minute or so they appeared on their wedding day, they were older, but not by much, no more than five years. A moment passed and a baby appeared in Harry’s arms and Draco was looking at him lovingly over Harry’s shoulder. Another moment and the boy had grown to about three or four, he looked very like Harry but he had Draco’s eyes. Severus James was the name that they both associated with him for some reason. Draco had one hand around Harry and the other resting on their son’s shoulder. Harry’s arms were occupied with another bundle. A moment later the two boys had aged another five years, the younger of their children looked very like Draco but the eyes were most definitely Harry’s, Remus Zachary was somehow his name. His older brother had an arm around him and Harry’s hand was on his shoulder.

Harry turned to Draco. 'So, what do you see Dragon?' and Draco told him.

They were both mildly surprised that they had seen the same thing. Over the years they would often think back on that night and what they had seen. They would discuss it on more than one occasion and they would eventually come to the conclusion that Harry had essentially seen the same thing as the first time. He wanted a family, they both did and over the years they would accumulate one together.


	18. Dinner With Dudley

In the first week of December Harry and Draco had gone back to England for the holidays. They had decided to stay at Grimauld Place. Mrs Black has surprisingly not made a fuss at Draco’s presence, something she had only quite recently stopped doing to Harry. When he pointed this fact out to him Draco had responded with a dignified snort.

‘I’m a Black Harry.’ He had said, as if it explained the meaning of life, which it didn’t but it explained the Mrs Black situation quite nicely.

That Friday night was the night that Dudley and Susan had invited them for dinner with Vernon and Petunia. Harry’s relationship with his cousin was complicated, they had seen each other a handful of times after the war. Dudley had grown quite considerably while they had been in hiding and the two of them had been building bridges.

The house Dudley and Susan lived in was rather nice and was just far enough from Vernon and Petunia that they didn’t see them often but close enough so that they never had to come and stay. It was really a quite ingenious plan of Dudley’s. Harry and Draco had arrived a little early and by the time Vernon and Petunia arrived the four of them were deep in conversation about the Station, Harry and Dudley both knew that Vernon and Petunia would be altogether uninterested and would not allow the subject to be talked about for long once they arrived. Both Dudley and Susan found the concept fascinating and so talked about it at length while they could.

As expected when Vernon and Petunia arrived they had changed the subject in under a minute, the other four shared a slightly bemused look as Vernon prattled on about drills for twenty minutes.

‘So Draco, what made you get into Potions?’ Dudley said, in an effort to change the subject. At the mention of Magic Vernon turned a particular shade of red that he saved for just such occasions and Petunia looked as if she had swallowed a lemon but neither said anything, painfully aware that there were three adult Sorcerers in the room making them well and truly outnumbered.

‘I don’t really know, I had a really good teacher who inspired me I guess. What do you do? How rude of me, we’ve been chatting away and I forgot to ask.’

‘Don’t worry about it. I’m the Muggle liaison for the ministry of magic as of about a month ago. I also coach boxing part time.’ Vernon turned white, this was the first he or his wife had heard of this. Dudley had forgotten about that particular fact. But again Vernon and Petunia said nothing, Harry and Dudley shared a slightly mortified look. Draco saved them.

‘Really, what does that involve?’ Draco asked

‘Well, it’s a bit dull really. I mainly identify Muggle objects and go to meetings with the Minister for Magic and the Prime Minister in case he needs a translator. Also Kingsley thinks it makes the Prime Minister more comfortable not being the only Muggle in the room. I think he appreciates it.’

The conversation turned to drills again and mercifully dinner was ready soon after. They migrated to the table. The conversation was stiff throughout the main course, which was a delicious lamb roast that Susan had made. About halfway through desert The McLoney Twins had come up in conversation. It had finally become too much for Vernon he stood thumping his fists on the table. He was shouting.

‘Right, that’s it! Some of us don’t want to hear about a bunch of-’ Draco had been about to say something but Dudley had beaten him to it. Dudley stood, drawing himself to his full height, which he had gotten from his mother making him stand a good deal taller than his father, he spoke calmly but beneath it was a burning rage that anyone with any sense would find terrifying.

‘Dad, this is my house and you are my guest. You will keep a civil tongue in my house or you will leave it.’ Vernon had never had much sense and so shouted for about another minute before Dudley manhandled him out the front door. Petunia looks august and followed them with her nose upturned.

When Dudley returned to the table there was a light applause at the table. Dudley blushed.

‘I can’t believe you did that.’ Harry told him.

‘Neither do I.’ He replied taking a sip from his wineglass and folding his hands under his chin. ‘So, refresh my memory, Quidditch?’

They explained in detail, using various utensils and condiments. Dudley seemed genuinely interested and expressed a desire to see a match.

‘The Weasleys usually have a match on Christmas day. You could come with us and see it.’

‘You think I’d be Welcome?’

‘If I’m welcome, you’re definitely welcome.’ Draco supplied.

‘I’ll have to ask Molly but I’ve never known her to turn anyone away. You really think you’ll be spending Christmas with your parents after that?’

‘I guess not.’

‘And how do you feel about that?’

‘Not all that bad surprisingly. Alright ask your friend.’

They stayed talking until quite late and when Dudley offered them the spare room they took it. They had flown, as they did almost everywhere, both hating to aperate unless absolutely necessary. They had enjoyed themselves immensely that night, the incident with Vernon and Petunia notwithstanding.  At half past ten the next morning Dudley had a meeting with Kingsley and the Prime Minister.

‘Well, it was good to see you Harry. Nice to meet you Draco. We should do this again.’

‘I’ll say, I had a good time. Say hello to Kingsley for me.’

‘Will do, he’s still a bit mad at you for leaving though.’

‘I bet, he has to do his own press conferences now.’

‘He still won’t do them. Neville Longbottom did them for a while after you left and he’s got Herminie Granger doing them now. Must dash.’ He left at that. Harry and Draco left soon after bidding Susan farewell, promising to repeat the evening before they went back to Australia. Something they did twice.

* * *

 

Later that day they visited Draco’s mother. It was a successful visit and Narcissa Malfoy had taken to Harry, and he her, quite quickly. Harry left them alone that afternoon so that he could go visit the Burrow and so that Draco could have some time alone with his mother.

He had arrived at the Burrow via Floo and Molly greeted him.

‘Hello dear, how are you, you look well’

‘I am thank you Molly, Charlie sends his love.’

‘Is Draco not coming?’

‘No, he’s spending some time with his mother.’

Molly immediately began, as Molly does, fussing over Harry. He was rescued about twenty minutes later by Arthur who had been tinkering all morning. Molly had made a pot of tea by this point and Arthur poured a cup for each of them and asked Harry about Australia and sparing very few details Harry told them. It was an hour or so later when Harry got to the point that had been on his mind.

‘Are you sure that it’s alright for Draco and his mother to come to Christmas?’

‘Of course dear, don’t be silly.’ Molly told him.

‘In that case we’ll invite his mother. We’re both looking forward to it. There was one other thing, and I wouldn’t normally ask but my cousin Dudley and his fiancée, Susan Bones, don’t have anywhere to go for Christmas and I was wondering if they could come here as well.’  Harry was unsurprised by her reply in the affirmative that was backed strongly by Arthur. Who remarked that there would be well and truly enough people for a Quidditch match with Fleur’s sister, Gabrielle, visiting from France and all the boys were bringing their respective spouses.

Harry returned to Grimauld Place fairly late in the afternoon in a good mood, Draco was still at the Manor with his mother so Harry sent Shylock with a note.

 

Dragon,

Spoke to Molly and Arthur. All fine for Christmas. Tell your mother any time after eleven Christmas day. Lunch is usually at one but could be earlier or later depending.

Love you,

 

Draco sent him back short a while later with a note in his immaculate handwriting.

 

Harry,

Mother’s invited us to dinner. She wants to get to know you. We’ll ask her together. Floo over… Please.

Love D.

 

Harry did as he was told and a moment later he was stepping out of the marble fireplace of Malfoy Manor. The three of them had a pleasant evening. The station dominated the conversation. Draco’s Mother listened to the pair of them talk animatedly, content to listen. By the end of the evening, when Harry and Draco had left for Grimalud Place, she knew with absolute certainty that Harry made her son happier than he had ever been and, so far as she could tell, the effect was mutual.


	19. Back To The Castle

The following week they had gone to The Castle, primarily to visit Neville and their old professors. They had flown as Monday was rather nice, if a little colder than they had become used to, arriving at lunchtime. As they climbed the steps to the great hall they found themselves standing on the same spot they had been the first time they passed through the doors before them.

‘Harry.’ Draco said holding out his hand, just as he had done all those years ago. There was no hesitation this time, Harry took it, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek.

They had decided to make an entrance. Harry took Draco’s Hand again and they pushed the doors to the great hall open. Everyone in the room turned to see who it was. The pair of them strode down the middle of the room towards the head table. The room, minus Neville and Minerva, were slightly taken aback for a moment to see Harry and Draco together. Until Denis Creavey, who was in his seventh year, stood up at the Gryffindor table and started to clap loudly. He was joined by Neville at the head table and a smattering of the students who had been at school at the same time as Harry and Draco. The rest of the room gradually joined. The Slytherins were less enthusiastic but about half the table were on their feet. When the room had settled down Harry and Draco made their way along the head table greeting their old professors before sitting next to Neville on the end of the table.

He turned to them. ‘Care to sit in on my Second year class after lunch?’

‘Sure, Greenhouse three?’ Harry replied for both of them.

‘Yep.’

* * *

 

They found that Neville was as remarkably suited to teaching as they were. While they were there they visited the portraits of Snape and Dumbledore in McGonagall’s office as well as the portraits of Fred Weasley, Lavender Brown, Colin Creavey, Lupin and Tonks. Fred’s portrait had been hung over the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room in the place of The Fat Lady while Tonks and Lupin hung side by side with The Marauders, Lilly and other members of The Order Of The Phoenix and Dumbledore’s Army, They surrounded a list of the dead from both sides of both wars. They were surprised to find the name ‘Tom Marvolo Riddle’ on the list. There was also a portrait of Cedric Diggory, its plaque reading ‘Cedric Diggory. The first blood of the second Wizarding War.’ Above the list of the dead large letters read ‘The Fallen of the First and Second Wizarding Wars,’ and underneath, in slightly smaller letters were the words: ‘Never Forget, Never Repeat.’

The main reason that the two had visited the Castle, aside from seeing Neville and the professors, was to attend the Yule Ball. Minerva had changed this event from only the years of the Tri-Wizard Tournament to a yearly one. She had asked them to attend as special guests, along with Hannah Abbot, Parvatti Patil and Harper Bulstrode as well as Padma and Rionach O'Neal along with a handful of others from their year, Oliver Wood, Luna Lovegood and some of the Weasleys. Some of the other guests were slightly taken aback to see Harry and Draco dancing so close, they had, of course, heard the rumour that had found its way into the Daily Prophet, though very few had actually believed it. Later in the night Draco and Neville were entertaining a group of first and second years while Harry was dancing with Hermione. A moment later Draco cut in on Harry and danced with Hermione for a while.

‘Is Ron here?’ Draco asked her after a while.

‘He’s here somewhere, I think he’s avoiding me though.’

‘Oh?’

‘He doesn’t dance.’ No sooner than she had said this Ron appeared next to them. He hadn’t minded when she was dancing with Harry but her dancing with Draco was another thing entirely.

‘Can I cut in?’

‘Of course.’ Draco left to join Harry who was dancing with Rionach O'Neal while Padma Patil watched from nearby. Draco asked her to join him they came up next to their respective spouses.

‘Swap?’ Said Draco tapping Rionach on the shoulder.

They did and Draco was dancing with Harry again.

‘Having fun?’ he said

‘Oh, Yes, how about you.’

‘Yea, Hermione and I just discovered that Ron doesn’t like me dancing with her, look.’ He said indicating Hermione and Ron who were dancing across the room next to Lisa Terpin and Denis Creavey.

At the end of the night there were several sleeping first years in the great hall. Minerva making the executive decision not to wake them asked Harry and Draco, as well as the Professors and other guests to help carry them to bed. Harry and Draco were carrying a pair of Slytherins down to the Dungeons and Blaise was following with a third. The three of them were talking softly. Blaise had been more alright with the two of them dating than either of them had expected and he had warmed to Harry quite quickly.


	20. The Moment Of Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's a bit late. I've been having Internet issues.

Charlie and David arrived at The Burrow the week before Christmas. The only one of his siblings present was Ginny who still lived there between traveling with the Hollyhead Harpies. After dropping their stuff in Charlie’s old room Charlie went to find her while David sat in the living room, not wanting to intrude when the two of them hadn’t seen each other in almost a year. He eventually found her up in her room playing nothing in particular on her guitar. She had started teaching herself to play shortly after leaving Hogwarts mostly out of bordem and was getting quite good.

‘Ginny.’ He said from the doorway after listening to her for a moment. She turned to him when she heard him abandoning the instrument immediately in favour of talking her big brother into a hug.

‘Charlie!’ she almost shouted ‘I’ve missed you!’ Their parents had decided not to tell her that he was coming home in favour of surprising her.

‘I missed you too. Come on there’s someone I want you to meet.’ He told her slinging an arm around her shoulders and leading her to the living room were David was waiting.

Charlie found himself being hit by a ball of nerves on the way down the stairs. His heart was beating out of his chest and he had turned a shade or two paler than normal. Ginny, who was leaning into his side, hadn’t noticed. He didn’t remember Ginny’s bedroom being quite so far from the living room.

David had been pacing on and off while Charlie looked for his sister. He was even more nervous than Charlie, while Charlie had come out as pansexual to his family in the summer after his fifth year at Hogwarts, he had never brought anyone home. Upon hearing the two of them approach he stopped pacing and straightened his shirt.

‘Ginny, this is David Emerson, my fiancé. David, my sister Ginny.’

‘You’re engaged! Why didn’t you say anything?’ She said, slightly louder than necessary, shoving him playfully. She then rounded on David, ‘Nice to meet you.’ She offered her hand to him then she proceeded to give him a lengthy, and really quite scary, speech that boiled down to: If you hurt him, I will kill you.  He believed it too.

* * *

 

Of all the Weasley children Bill was the only one who knew about the engagement, Charlie having gone to him for relationship advice several times, including once after he had decided to propose asking how to go about it. Bill, of all the Weasley children, had always been the one to give the best advice.

After their conversation with Ginny, Charlie and David went to visit Shell Cottage. Though Bill was the only one of Charlie’s brothers to have heard anything about David, the two of them had never actually met. When the pair of them knocked on the door of the cottage it was Fleur who answered, greeting them cheerfully, she directed them to the small living room where Bill was being thoroughly beaten by Fleur’s sister Gabrielle, now thirteen years old and the spitting image of her older sister, at exploding snap. Once she did beat him he greeted his younger brother properly. Charlie then introduced David, they were both a good deal less nervous as it was Bill. The two brothers played a game of wizard’s chess that Bill won and David was talking with Fleur and Gabrielle, who both had trouble understanding his accent and some of his Kiwi-isums, which Charlie translated almost unconsciously from across the room.

* * *

 

Dinner that night at the Burrow was only Molly, Arthur, Ginny, Charlie and David. As had happened with Fleur, though not to such an extent, Molly had reservations about David. She eventually did warm up to him after finding that the two of them obviously had a great deal in common. They too had problems with the Kiwi-isums, subsequently by the end of the evening Charlie had spent a fair amount of time translating. Charlie hadn’t been particularly concerned about the reactions from his parents either. Molly and Arthur had a firm policy that as long as their children were happy, they were happy. Their biggest concern was Ron, who would be arriving with Hermione sometime the following day. Charlie had no doubt that Ron would be perfectly fine with it, however the youngest of the Weasley boys had a habit of overreacting to news he wasn’t prepared for.

The following day saw the arrival of Percy, as well as Ron and Hermione and George and Angelina, thankfully not all at once. Percy was the first, arriving at about eleven o’clock. He was the only member of his family Charlie was worried about, other than Ron. Where Ron would blow things entirely out of proportion when taken by surprise, Percy would close himself off entirely while he processed things. Of the two Ron’s method was quicker though they were equally unpleasant. As predicted Percy was polite when introduced to David but disappeared into his room fairly soon after and wasn’t seen again until dinner time. When he did emerge he was, more or less, back to his usual self.

Ron and Hermione arrived about an hour after Percy had disappeared into his bedroom. Ron had, as expected ranted for half an hour at Percy, who didn’t really notice. Ron had then come downstairs, and though still slightly brooding, re-joined the rest of them. Hermione apologised for her husband and went to talk to Ginny. David got the feeling that she did this kind of thing quite often.

George and Angelina arrived just before lunch and, in typical George fission, he had congratulated them on the engagement and made a remark about Ron having beaten him to the altar. Charlie then reminded him that Ron had also beaten both George himself and Percy. Something that quickly shut him up.

A little while after lunch, having seen hide nor hair of Percy, Charlie went to talk to him. He knocked on Percy’s door.

‘Percy, can I come in?’ Charlie called through the door.

‘Alright.’ Percy replied, though it was barely audible through the door.

Charlie let himself in and sat next to Percy on his bed.

‘Will you talk to me please Percy? Nobody’s seen hide nor hair of you all day, you’re worrying me.’

‘It’s nothing Charlie, it’s just, you never even dated before then you come home from New Zealand with a fiancé. It’s a lot to process is all? I’ll be fine you don’t have to worry about me.’ He said bumping shoulders reassuringly with his older brother.

‘I have to worry about you, I’m your big brother it’s in the job description: Worry constantly, embarrass as often as humanly possible, die for if necessary. Tell me honestly, does it have anything to do with the fact that David is a man?’

‘Of course not, I always expected you to bring a bloke home. I just didn’t expect you to be engaged already when you did.’

‘I did always intend to bring him home before we got engaged, but it’s hard for both of us to get away at the same time, and the day I proposed was pretty significant. Blimey I love him Percy.’

‘I can see that. He certainly makes you happy. So, what else is going on with you, liking the job?’

‘Yea, I am, takes up most of my time, which is nice. New Zealand is so beautiful, you should come visit. We’ve been to Hogwarts Station a few times to visit Harry. They put on great Quidditch Games at the Station. Harry and Draco’s teams especially.’

‘Are they really dating?’

‘They are actually, I was a bit surprised but Draco’s grown up quite a lot from what I hear.’

‘I just can’t picture it, you didn’t see them at Hogwarts, constantly at each other’s throats. And Malfoy was a little prat.’

‘Do us a favour, give him a clean slate. He’s grown up a lot and he makes Harry happy.’

‘Alright. You and I both know that I’ve had enough clean slates to build a small house.’

‘You haven’t had that many Percy.’

‘I’ve had a few.’

‘I’m not denying that.’ Charlie said playfully, earning him a shove. ‘What’s new with you?’

‘Not a lot. Remember how I wanted to be Minister for Magic?’

‘How could I not? It’s all you ever really wanted to do, except for that brief phase that we don’t mention.’

‘Don’t remind me. Anyway work is so dull. Minister for Magic is a stupid Job.’ He hesitated for a moment. ‘I’m thinking of leaving the Ministry.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘That’s the thing. I never even considered another job.’

‘The key, I have found is to do what you love. So, what do you love?’

‘I don’t know, I don’t have hobbies.’

‘You could work for George.’

‘That would make him my boss. That’s like you working for me.’

‘How about teaching. You’re an irritating overachiever. I think you’d be good at it.’

‘Pot, meet Kettle. I could though, but what?’

‘I seem to remember you having a particular talent for Transfiguration. I bet McGonagall’s going to stop teaching soon. I bet she’d love to leave her department with you. You were her favourite student.’

‘After you and Oliver Wood you mean.’

‘I’d pretend to not know what you’re talking about but there’s really no point is there?’

‘No. You were her Quidditch Captains. Everyone knows you two were her favourite. I’m quite happy to take a close second.’

‘I’m going to see everyone, you coming?’

‘You go, I’ll be out later.’


	21. The Festive Season

Two days later it was Christmas day and Harry and Draco woke up slowly in Grimald Place. Neither were quite sure how long it took, but at about nine o’clock they were showered, dressed and halfway down the stairs to exchange presents. Draco had gotten Harry a custom broomstick with an inscription on the handle: To Harry, Merry Christmas. Your Dragon. He had also given him a set of enchanted cufflinks and a matching tie pin in the shape of a silver dragon with several tiny red, green, blue and yellow stones in its back. Harry then led him to the back of the house to a small room that was mostly used for storage. Or it had been the last time Draco had been in there. Now it was a potions lab. Its walls were lined with shelves, mostly empty apart from a few staple potions ingredients, labelled in Harry’s hand with colour change ink. There was a large bench in the centre which contained a fairly large white gold caldron with an elegant pattern running around the outside of the brim. It was inscribed near the base: My Dragon, Potion’s masters, in my life at least, I’ve found, often have a cauldron given to them by the person they love. In keeping with this tradition Merry Christmas Dragon. Love Harry.

It was a moment before Draco found his voice.

‘You gave me a potions lab.’ He said, still a little unbelieving. ‘Harry, how’d you?’

Draco was indeed perplexed, he had been with Harry almost constantly the entire time they’d been in England. They had been apart perhaps eight hours since they left Australia and Draco had no Idea where he had found the time to do all this. In reality, he had not had time to do it, not alone. He had conscripted the help of Hermione, Ron and Dudley one afternoon while Draco was visiting his mother. Dudley had not been much help but had done most of the heavy lifting, Harry had been surprised at how well he got on with Ron. The two had met a handful of times at ministry functions and had, according to Hermione, hit it off surprisingly quickly.

‘Hermione, Ron and Dudley came over to help while you were at The Manor last week.’

* * *

 

Meanwhile at The Burrow Christmas morning was its usual orderly chaos. As was tradition, all of the Weasley children as well as Angelina, David, Hermione, Fleur and Gabrielle had stayed at the Burrow Christmas eve and were exchanging presents before getting ready for Christmas lunch.

Harry and Draco arrived about half past ten in order to help setting up. They had arrived by Floo, having left it a little bit too late to fly, as they had been planning to do.

They were joined by Dudley and Susan just after eleven o’clock and Harry introduced Dudley to everyone. To his credit, Dudley didn’t mix up any of the Weasley brothers, this was a feat because the only members of the family he had ever met were Arthur and Ron and Dudley was notoriously bad with names. In true Weasley fashion they all seemed to like him and Susan.

Narcissa Malfoy arrived a little before midday. To her surprise she was greeted warmly by everyone. She had arrived not knowing what to expect. She liked Harry, he made her son happy. But the Weasleys, she had never had the problem her husband did regarding the Weasley’s but the only member of the family she had ever met was Molly. They had only met properly once or twice.

Harry and Draco were negotiating with Charlie and Ginny who would play seeker that afternoon. It had been discided to leave the discision to the four of them as the Seekers usually picked the teams. It was eventually discided, quite conveniently, as they were being called for Christmas Lunch that Charlie and Harry would play in Seeker while Draco would take Keeper on Harry’s team and Ginny would play Chaser on Charlie’s team. The dinnertime conversation lingered for a while on Charlie and David’s work before drifting for a while and Landing on Hogwarts Station for a time. At some point Arthur, who was spmehow sitting next to Dudley, with whom he had a passing aquantance, began talking to Dudley about varying aspects of the muggle world. The conversation then drifted to The Hollyhead Harpies  for a time and later to the Ministry.

After lunch they migrated to the living room to exchange gifts. Once this had happened Ginny got out her guitar and Hermione transfigured a piano out of the coffee table for Gabrielle, who was an excellent pianist, various Christmas carols were played. Harry and Draco contributed on that they had heard before they left Australia ‘Christmas Where The Gumtrees Grow’

_Christmas where the gumtrees grow, there is no frost and there is no snow_

_Christmas in Australia’s hot, cold and frosty’s what it’s not_

_When The bloom of the Jacaranda tree is here, Christmas time is near._

After this they returned to more traditional Carols. The Christmas carols of wizarding Britain, and Dudley thanked his lucky stars for this, were mostly the same as those of the Muggle world.

Soon it was time for Quidditch, Dudley had been looking forward to this. They all made their way out to the field behind the house where they always played Quidditch. Molly transfigured the fencing sleepers, clustered at either end of the field for this purpose, into goal posts. Harry and Charlie stepped in front of the group and announced their teams which they had briefly discussed before the carols and after presents.

‘Alright Keepers.’ Charlie said rubbing his hands together. ‘Ron, you’re with me.’

‘Draco, you’re with me.’

‘Beaters. Bill, David, you’re with me.’

‘Percy, George, you’re with me.’

‘Chasers. Ginny, get over here, you too Angelina, Susan, you too.’

‘Fleur, Gabrielle, if you would be so kind and Narcissa, Draco tells me you were quite the player at one stage. You too.’

Narcissa was slightly hesitant at first, but it had been a long time since she had played and so she joined them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That Christmas Carol is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvazmEwP-8o


	22. Back To Where We Began

One unseasonably warm Tuesday in mid-January Harry and Draco were wandering down Diagon alley together. They had eaten lunch sometime previously and Harry subtly steered Draco into Madame Makin’s. Draco, who was not paying a great deal of attention to his surroundings, didn’t notice where he was for some time. He had in fact been led onto a stool by the time he had realised that something about his surroundings was amiss. He looked around him and he quickly realised where he was. The reasoning behind their being here was still a mystery, wizards dressed exactly the way Muggles did in Australia, this was mainly due to the fact that it was more practical. As a result the two of them had no need for robes, thus Draco’s confusion as to why they were in a robe shop. He looked at Harry, perplexed.

Harry looked back at him. There was something in his eyes that Draco couldn’t quite place.

‘Draco Malfoy, I don’t know if you remember but, this is where we first met, nearly ten years ago. If anyone had told me then that you would be the one person I can’t live without I would have told them to have their head examined. When I saw you for the first time I instantly disliked you and then you opened your mouth, and I liked you even less. People always say that when they meet the love of their life for the first time that somehow they know. But I didn’t know until I knew. We’ve had a bumpy road you and me Draco, but sometime after we met again last year I knew. I knew that you were the love of my life and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. I am so glad that my first impression of you, as first impressions so often do, turned out to be dead wrong. We’ve had a wild ride and I can’t honestly say that I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, but we’ve stayed on our toes. I can’t imagine my life without you Draco and I want to marry you. I can’t wait to go on the next adventure with you and to meet our sons, Severus James and Remus Zachary. So Draco Malfoy, love of my life, dear friend, whenever they let us, will you do me the honour of becoming my husband?’

Draco Malfoy, for perhaps the third time in his life, was speechless. After about half a second he did the only thing he could do, he kissed him. When they parted, just a fraction a moment later, he replied in a whisper that only Harry could hear.

‘Yes.’

Unbeknownst to Draco there were about a dozen people hidden behind the racks including various Weasleys, Hermione, Narcissa, Dean, Seamus, Dudley, Neville, Jayne, Joel and Zachary. The McLoneys had visited for this specific purpose and were staying for a week in Wizarding Britain to see the sights. Once they all immerged from their hiding places, applauding, Harry took a step back holding out a closed fist. He opened his palm and a platinum band materialised into it. He slid it onto Draco’s finger, kissing him again.

After about ten minutes the assembled masses dissipated, back to work mostly, and Harry and Draco showed the McLoneys around for an hour or so before they went their separate ways. The three Australians found it odd that Wizarding Britain used separate currency to the rest of Britain as this was another thing that was not done in Australia. They also felt slightly out of place, being dressed in Muggle clothing. The last place the five of them visited together before they separated was Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, as expected it was Christmas all over again for the Twins. Zachary was also impressed. The three of them had taken to George quite quickly. Ginny also happened to be there, having offered to help George in the shop for the afternoon as she had been climbing the walls at The Burrow and there was still another month before training started for the year. Harry and Draco left for Grimald place twenty minutes later, bidding the others farewell. A little later they were sat in the living room with cups of tea by a flickering fire.

‘We just got engaged,’ Draco said finally.

‘We did.’

‘Pinch me Harry.’

‘You aren’t dreaming Dragon.’

‘I know, just do it.’ Harry obliged. ‘Ouch.’

‘Told you.’

‘We’re getting married.’

‘Yes, we are.’

‘There’s so much to do, we have to decide on a date, organise catering, decide when to have it, Australia or here-’ Harry cut him off.

‘Breathe Dragon, breathe.’ He did. ‘We don’t need to worry about anything yet. It’s not even legal yet, here or in Australia. Stop worrying, let’s not rush things.’

‘Alright, sorry. Just processing. This is beautiful Harry, what was it?’ He said looking at his ring. It was customary in the Wizarding world for an engagement ring to be transfigured from something of personal significance.

‘It was the Snitch I caught in my first Quidditch game.’

‘Harry, I don’t know what to say.’

Over the next three days Draco wracked his brain for something to transfigure for Harry’s ring. He just could not think of something that bore as much significance to him as that Snitch did for Harry. He eventually settled on the medallion that had not left his pocket since it had been given to him. It was platinum with an intricate figure eight design. Severus had given it to him when he successfully made his first potion on that summer afternoon when he was eight. When he transfigured it there were remnants of its intricate figure eight design left over and he was very happy with it, and so was Harry.

‘It’s beautiful Dragon what was it?’

‘It was the medallion that Severus gave me when I made my first potion when I was eight. I’ve had it with me ever since.’

‘It’s beautiful Draco.’


	23. The Wedding Of Dudley Dursley And Susan Bones

In the last week of January Dudley visited them. The invitations to his wedding had been sent about a fortnight ago and everything was ready for the ceremony in the second week in February. As everyone had thought it wisest to take the wizards to a Muggle venue rather than taking Vernon and Petunia to a Wizarding venue they had hired the ballroom of a Muggle hotel for the ceremony and its adjacent function room for the reception. The Patil Twins and Rionach O’Neill were Susan’s bridesmaids. Dudley had been trying to work up the nerve to ask Harry to be his best man for well over a fortnight. He had finally resolved to do it and that is what had brought him to the fireplace of Grimald Place that evening, quite by chance Draco and Harry were sitting reading by the fire when Dudley came through. He had only recently mastered the use of Floo powder.

‘Evening Dudley,’ Said Harry putting his book down, giving Dudley his full attention.

‘Evening.’ Said Draco at the same time, also putting down his book.

‘There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you both.’

‘What is it?’ asked Harry.

‘I was wondering if you’d be my best man.’ He asked Harry somewhat nerviously.

‘I’d be honoured.’

‘I was also wondering if you’d be a groomsman Draco, you’re family too now.’

‘Of course, I’d be honoured.’ A beat ‘You’ve been trying to do that for weeks haven’t you?’

‘I have, yes.’

‘Purely out of interest, how many Muggles are coming?’ Harry asked, curious.

‘Just Mum and Dad. I don’t really associate with many other Muggles nowadays.’

‘Bet they love that.’

‘It’s actually hilarious. I told them that the other day and they went all quiet. They’re both hoping for Muggle grandchildren.’

‘Not likely, Susan’s more or less pureblood and you have the recessive gene. I’d wager you have fairly powerful children in fact.’

‘You think so?’

‘Well, it sort of runs in families. My Mum was exceptional and all of Susan’s family were as well apparently, so your odds are good, or bad depending on your standpoint.’

Dudley was happy to hear this. Not only would his children be magical, they would be very magical. He doubted very much that his parents would agree with this, but since they went into hiding, he found himself caring less and less what they thought. To be frank it had begun much earlier than that. He found now, and it didn’t bother him at all, that he didn’t care at all what his parents thought. This was particularly true when it came to the magical world and his soon to be wife and their future children. He stayed talking to Harry and Draco for about another hour before returning home.

***

Three days before the wedding Harry, as was his duty as best man, threw Dudley a stag night. This involved Harry and Draco picking him up from his house and aperating to a wizarding pub where Bill, Percy, George, Ron and some of Dudley’s other friends from the ministry. Kingsley had even agreed to make an appearance, which he did later in the evening for about half an hour. Had it been a Muggle pub he could have stayed longer, with both he and Harry at the table there were more than a few eyes on them.

The evening consisted of jubilant conversation and a few drinks. There happened to be a band playing in one corner which provided the evening’s entertainment. It was close to midnight when Harry and Draco dropped Dudley home, the others having dissipated rather quickly just beforehand.

***

The night before the Wedding Dudley stayed with Harry and Draco at Grimald Place while the Patil twins and Rionach O’Neill spent the night at his place with Susan.

When the morning of the wedding came Dudley was a bundle of nerves. It was a nice day, the sun was out, and there was a dusting of snow on the ground. None of them slept past seven o’clock that morning. The ceremony was to begin at eleven o’clock, so they arrived to supervise the setting up of the ballroom at about ten o’clock. The room was decorated in black and silver with yellow accents and there was glitter suspended in mid-air.

Once the guests arrived and everyone was seated the precession began with Harry and Dudley, they were followed by Draco and Parvatti, who was the maid of honour. Behind them were Padma and Rionach. The ladies were dressed in matching, though not identical, silver and yellow dresses, The men were all in black dinner suits with a yellow stripe down the outside of each leg, Dudley’s lapels and buttons were also the same yellow, with white shirts and silver ties with thick diagonal stripes.

Susan came down the aisle with her sole living relative, he mother’s younger brother, the two of them were about the same height and there was a striking resemblance between them. Her dress was not flashy, white floor length with one shoulder exposed and the top part glittered. There was no train behind her. She met them and took Dudley’s hand,

The ceremony began, Vernon and Petunia were sat in the front row, looking discussed at all the magic in the room. Not to mention the fact that it was Harry standing up with Dudley as opposed to one of his Muggle friends. He didn’t notice this of course. When it came time for the Vows his words caused them both to fume.

‘Susan, you know about my past and every day for the rest of my life I will be making up for the person I used to be. The person I am now is entirely different to the person I was and I no longer want to be associated with him. The Dursley family line lies in my hands, as the Bones line lies in yours. Traditionally it would be your family name that comes to an end today but the Bones family name is far nobler than the name Dursley so it is the name of Dursley that ends today. Our children, who I have it on good authority really exceptional witches and wizards, will carry the name Bones as will I from this day forward.’

This had come as a shock to everyone else in the room as they had both decided to keep it quiet, partially to avoid, until after the wedding at least, an altercation with the Dursleys over it, something sure to happen eventually.

The reception that afternoon began an hour or so later, the wedding party had gone straight there but everyone else had left for a while. After lunch had been served and the cake had been cut, which happened to be about two o’clock, the dance floor was cleared for the first dance. When it ended the dance floor began to fill up, beginning with Harry and Draco. When they had seen this Vernon and Petunia, as expected, made a scene and left. Harry and Dudley shared a knowing look as they did so and the dance floor continued to fill up. The reception stretched into the late evening when Dudley and Susan, who had changed out of her wedding dress at some stage in the afternoon, left for their Honeymoon. They were spending a week somewhere in Scotland, they had not told anyone exactly where, apart from Harry who was keeping it a closely guarded secret.

***

The altercation over Dudley’s name change came two days after they got home. Vernon and Petunia had arrived at Dudley and Susan’s house in the late afternoon and Vernon had ranted for half an hour or so at him while Petunia had stood back looking disapproving. It had boiled down to The Dursleys refusing to speak to either of them again and leaving in a foul mood.

‘Well that was easier than expected.’ Dudley said to his wife after Vernon and Petunia had stormed out.

‘You think so?’

‘I was expecting more irate sobbing to be honest.’

‘Really? She was giving you some glares though.’

‘She obviously doesn’t mind so much.’

‘What gives you that idea?’

‘The particular glare she was employing is the ‘Why do you wind him up like this?’ glare. Mixed in with the ‘What on earth were you thinking’ one.’

‘How many does she have?’

‘Oh, hundreds, she’s got glaring at people down to a fine art my mother.’

The result of the altercation bothered Dudley much less than he had anticipated. This had always been on the cards. He was expecting it to bother him at least a bit. It seemed such a trivial thing, changing his surname. It had been his idea and Susan had appreciated it. Besides, his father had always said, with no small amount of conviction that no Dursley would ever go to Hogwarts. That part was the linchpin, his father had always somehow made things he said with that much conviction, with very few exceptions, happen in one way or another. This was simply Dudley’s way of ensuring that his children would.


	24. An Unexpected Visit

The week before Harry and Draco had to return to The Station there came a knock at the door. This was unusual because most of the people they knew came in through the fireplace to avoid the wroth of Mrs Black. Draco was the one to answer, they had found, quite by chance that she didn’t voice her objections towards guests quite so much if it was Draco who let them in. The visitors were Oliver Wood and Hamish McCoy who had a thick Edinburgh accent and was two, almost three, years Oliver’s junior. He had not attended Hogwarts, instead he had attended a small academy, fairly near to Hogwarts. The Scotland Academy Of The Magical Arts was, unbeknownst to Harry or Draco, located on the other side of Hogsmede to Hogwarts. It was a much smaller school, only around sixty students at any one time and only two houses.

Draco saw the two of them into the living room and offered them a drink before going to find Harry who was upstairs talking to a rather large python who had never found its way home after an eleven year old Harry had inadvertently set it free. It had, by sheer coincidence, found its way to the basement of Grimald place one day to keep warm by the boiler, Harry had found it there in mid-December and, to its surprise, had politely asked what it was doing in his basement and had allowed it to stay. Harry had also given it free range of the house, something that had taken Draco some time to get used to.

‘Oliver’s here Harry, he brought Hamish.’

‘Thanks Dragon, I’ll be down in a second,’ He inadvertently replied in Parseltoungue, then at Draco’s fond look, one that he reserved for when Harry inadvertently spoke to him in parseltoungue, He repeated it in English and bid the snake farewell and following him down to the lounge room.

‘Hey Oliver.’ Harry said when he saw him.

‘Hiya Harry, this is Hamish. Hamish this is Harry Potter, best seeker I knew until I met you.’ Harry and Hamish blushed in tandem at the complement and Draco and Oliver shared a look.

‘Nice to meet you Harry, I’ve heard a lot about you.’

‘All good things I hope.’

‘All of the stuff from Oliver, well most of it.’

The four of them spent some time talking and at one point the snake came in, making Oliver and Hamish jump up on the sofa they were sitting in. Harry reassured them while Draco laughed at the fact that they had done it almost entirely in sync, which had been a rather amusing sight and had amused the snake to no end.

Oliver and Hamish stayed for most of the afternoon before taking their leave of Harry and Draco. The snake, who had chosen the name Egeus, as he had never had one, had wound himself around the back of Harry’s chair and resting his head on Harry’s right shoulder and promptly fallen asleep. He had grown very fond of Harry, and he of him over the three months they had been at Grimald Place and it was not unusual for Egeus to sleep on Harry like that. Thankfully he didn’t seem to mind sharing with Draco. Draco on the other hand had originally objected to this but Harry had reassured him and he had gotten used to it.

‘He promises not to squeeze you to death.’ Harry had said and that had done it. He had found of late that he just couldn’t say no to Harry. He had come to the conclusion that he was lucky Harry was not the type to take this weakness for granted although he had definitely noticed it.

They spent the rest of the night in companionable silence while listening to radio programs. That was something that Australia lacked, good radio dramas, and it had been one of only a handful of things that they had missed. Harry had mentioned this to Hermione in one of his letters and she had given them several hours’ worth of recordings from Muggle and Wizarding radio alike. They were saving those for when they went back to Australia, at the moment they were listening to a Muggle radio station that broadcast radio dramas almost exclusively. In the evenings they were quite high quality. In the middle of the day however, they were occasionally a bit rubbish.

At around about eight that night an unfamiliar owl rapped on the window. Neither of them noticed it for a moment. Draco reluctantly got up to open the window for the poor creature. It was a snowy owl, quite young by the looks of it. She belonged to Neville, who had written them to wish them a safe trip and a good year. Neither of them knew it yet but it was going to be a very good one.


	25. Full Circle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, its Christmas. Thanks for sticking with me. Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year from my family to yours.

They arrived home on the Station at the end of February.  It had taken them both by surprise when they had started referring to The Station as ‘home’, neither of them were quite sure when that had happened but they realised that it was perhaps the truest home either of them had ever known. The Castle even had never felt quite like this. There had always been a gaping chasm between the houses and they never quite felt like a whole. Sense taking over the school, Minerva had been working on bridging that divide. But well over a thousand years of tradition and routine had proved hard to break free of. The castle would never have the same sense of community that the station had but they would, at least, work towards it. In a matter of a little over a decade, the children at least, wizarding Britain had managed to shed much of the prejudices and bridge the once gaping chasm between the houses at the school. Five years later saw the introduction of several Muggle subjects, including an arts program. Towards the end of the second decade saw the beginning of true healing for Wizarding Britain.


	26. Glossary

This is a brief Glossary of words and phrases that may or may not make sense to the average person.

* * *

 

A Mortar and Pestle is one of [these](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91Hk6N93u7L._SL1500_.jpg) it is used to grind ingredients in Pharmacy. In My Grandfather’s day Pharmacists prepared almost everything they sold to some degree. Now, with only a few exceptions, we get everything ready-made.

* * *

 

Our Fire Danger season runs from about November to April it will occasionally begin or end a little earlier or later depending on a range of factors and governs the use of open flames to prevent bushfires witch can be devastating. Particularly for those in regional areas. Recently there was one that burned through an entire community killing two people and thousands of animals and livestock. One came through my community about ten years ago witch killed nine people. Bushfires aren’t something to be trifled with here. They burn hot and fast and sometimes you just have to contain them and let them burn out. Colin Thiele wrote a beautiful book about it called [February Dragon](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2156288.February_Dragon).

* * *

 

The CFA Is the Contry Fire Association in Victoria. Their Metro counterparts are the MFA (Metropolitan Fire Association) Here in SA we have the CFS (Contry Fire Service) and The MFS (Metropolitan Fire Service). We also have the SES (State Emergency Service) in each state.

* * *

 

Fireies are Firefighters.

* * *

Broome is the setting for [Bran Nue Dae](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnGRdaX594k) witch is the great Australian Musical. It is a magical place.

 

* * *

Bunny Bashing is a great Australian pastime in witch you go out spotlighting for rabbits and shoot them with rifle.

* * *

 

A KIwi is someone from New Zealand and they have some (Awesome) weird slang, hence Kiwi-Isum. 

* * *

 

A Jacaranda tree looks like [this](http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/8/0/3/3/1/0/webimg/511986081_o.jpg) and they are in bloom now.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact about Australians: we sometimes don’t know when we are using bizarre and obscure slang to the rest of the world This is just how we talk here so if I happen to use slang that makes no sense let me know and I’ll add it to the glossary of terms.
> 
> This is Fan Fiction, recognisable characters herein are not the property of the author. No copyright infringement intended. Please don't sue me JK.


End file.
